


Flotsam

by Phandabbydosey



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Animal Abuse, Drama, Fantasy, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up Together, Happy Ending, M/M, Mermaid Abuse, Mermaids, Neglect, Phandom Big Bang, Phandom Big Bang 2015, Seaworld Comparisions, Well - Freeform, mermaid au, mermaid!dan, pbb 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 05:36:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9370472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phandabbydosey/pseuds/Phandabbydosey
Summary: Dan is a ten year old merman who has been cruelly ripped away from his home and family to be put on display in a far from adequate tank. Phil is a ten year old boy who is obsessed with merpeople and thinks it’s a dream come true when the local aquarium rescues one from the English coast. However, things aren’t quite as they seem and ,as the two grow up together and get closer, Phil discovers the truth and becomes disenchanted. Dan has to struggle to survive while Phil endeavours to save his friend from a miserable, humiliating life performing himself to a premature death.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the mistreatment of orcas and dolphins at SeaWorld and the piece [‘Confined’](http://joshuadunlop.deviantart.com/art/Confined-475303946) by Joshua Dunlop (His [Portfolio](http://joshd4000.wix.com/portfolio) and [DeviantArt](http://joshuadunlop.deviantart.com/))  
> So, was my big bang fic for 2015 and I’m so so proud of it. I worked on it for a long time and became really invested in the universe. I want to thank Alissa (spoopyendergirl on tumblr) my beta because she was a pinch hitter so joined the fic very late but has been incredibly helpful and given some great advice. Also a huge thank you to Alice (aliando on tumblr) for her amazing art (which she finished super fast), it’s perfect. Finally, thank you to gatsbys-old-sport on tumblr, my usual beta who helped me a lot with the planning and some writing before the team was put together, as well as when I was between betas. I love you all and this fic wouldn’t be what it is without you :D   
> Also, I got a bit too into the world building so I created a wikipedia page about the merpeople species in this story, which can be found [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Phandabbydosey/sandbox) (There are plot spoilers at the very end but they’re clearly marked and easy to avoid)

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_10 years old_  


Dan flicked his tail and sped up, dragging his brother, Benjamin, along by his hand as he made sure they weren’t left behind. He glanced around, looking for the deep blue scales of his mother’s tail and moving closer once he spotted her.

Since he and his brother were both young, they stayed with their mother in the ‘nursery’ while the rest of their pod made the summer migration to their northern home. As the water warmed and the fishing possibilities were too good to pass up, every pod would make the journey while the younger children and their mothers stayed safe in the more southern, coastal waters. There they could build up their strength and, by accompanying their mothers on daily fishing trips, prepare themselves for the long swim to the north.

At ten years old, Dan had only three more years until he left with the rest of his family group. He couldn’t wait to get out and explore the proper ocean, always having been one to swim a little further than he should or want to play in the deep caves near their home. He’d had more than one incidence of being stung, scratched or bitten by the various flora and fauna on their reef, having gotten too close to something that didn’t want to be poked or prodded or picked up. He couldn’t help it though, he always wanted to see more and find out more and just explore the world he lived in.

His brother was the polar opposite, always staying close to their mother while Dan darted around after fish or clinging onto Dan’s hand on the way to the feeding grounds. It was a little annoying when Dan was forced to stay in their cave and keep an eye on him, but he was only five so Dan figured he couldn’t really blame him for being scared.

Dan internalised a groan as one of his mother’s friends swam over and stopped her, knowing the sun would be significantly lower in the sky by the time they stopped chatting. He and Ben floated nearby for a short while, but Dan quickly got bored and started to wander off.

He kind of hoped that Ben would stay by their mother, giving Dan the chance to explore more freely, but when he wasn’t more than a few feet away he felt a little hand slip into his and heard a few high pitched - and slightly worried - clicks from his brother. Dan gave him a look and rolled his eyes, whistling at him to tell him to shut up or go back to their mum. Benjamin replied with a slightly indignant click and let go of Dan’s hand, but stayed alongside him as they started swimming further away.

Dan could ignore him for the most part, focusing on the rocks below him as he scanned around for something interesting. He caught sight of something red poking out from the rocks at the very bottom of the reef and dipped down, bashing Ben with his tail a little due to how close his brother was sticking to him.

As Dan approached, the thing moved and, all of a sudden, the crab was scuttling away across the seabed at an impressive speed. Using his powerful tail, Dan caught up with ease and settled into a glide over the creature, not paying any attention to where he was going and focusing solely on the way the crabs legs moved so intricately.

He ignored Ben’s whines and clicks until the younger boy physically grabbed onto Dan’s tail, forcing him to stop swimming. Dan turned angrily and flicked his tail out of Ben’s arms, but his anger quickly dissipated when he saw genuine fear on his brother’s face. He let out a questioning noise, his gaze following Ben’s finger as it lifted to point upwards. There was something at the surface, something shadowy and kind of rounded that was bobbing up and down ever so slightly.

Dan’s eyes widened and his mouth opened a little as he realised what it was. It was a boat, an actual boat that would have humans on it. Of course, Dan had grown up around all the traditional horror stories of their people being hunted and kidnapped by humans, but, rather than scaring him to the point of nightmares as they had with Ben, Dan had only become more curious. Relations with the humans had improved somewhat in the recent years, with a few of their kind having spoken to the other race, letting them conduct their studies; one of the females in Dan’s pod even had a device on her tail which allowed the humans to track their movements. It was partly because the human’s technology had made it impossible for Dan’s people to remain hidden any longer, but Dan didn’t see it as a necessarily bad change. He hoped to one day speak to a human, maybe trade some information on life in the sea for answers to his questions about living on the land.

He had so many questions. How fast could they move without their boats? Did they have anything like the boats for moving on land? What did they eat? As far as Dan knew, fish were limited to the water so did they have some sort of land equivalent? Where did they live? Did they have pods or some other type of family group? Dan’s list of questions was extensive and grew longer every day.

Ben recognised the look on Dan’s face and grabbed his hand, trying to pull him back in the direction of their mother, who had disappeared from sight around the reef. Dan just brushed his brother’s hand off and gestured for him to stay where he was before starting to swim up towards the boat.

He told himself he wouldn’t get too close, he’d just have a little look then would go back to his mother with Ben. But, even as he thought about that, he found himself getting closer and closer until he was within arms reach of the dirty white plastic hull.

He could hear Ben clicking and whistling desperately from below, trying to get Dan to come back but being too scared to go over and grab him. Dan ignored the way the noises rose an octave when he reached out and placed his hand flat on the boat’s underside, feeling the vehicle pressing against him slightly as it rocked with the waves and the movement of people on board.

There were people on board, Dan realised with a shudder of excitement. Still touching the boat, Dan looked upwards to find the distorted image of a face looking down at him. It was a human, an actual human. Dan let himself rise slightly so his own face was closer to surface, trying to get a clearer view of the person observing him. Their face looked so similar to the ones Dan saw everyday, and he recognised the way the human’s lips stretched and curved upwards.

Dan smiled back at the person, about to break the surface and try speaking to them when he felt a disturbance in the water behind him.

Dan didn’t even have time to turn before the rough blue rope enveloped him from behind, forcing his body to curl as the ends were pulled taut and the cradle started to hoist him upwards. Dan could hear Ben screaming for their mother and swimming away as Dan thrashed frantically, futilely trying to wriggle his way out of the net. He cried out as the harsh rope scratched at his skin, but didn’t let up on his attempts to escape.

All of a sudden he was out of the water, gasping loudly to fill his lungs with air as his gills became redundant. He continued to whip his tail back and forth as hard as he could while he was dragged over the railings and onto the floor of the boat with a thud, yelling loudly and wordlessly when the calloused hands of the humans grabbed his lower half and held it still.

He jerked around in their grasp as best he could, but the strong, burly fishermen easily overpowered him and disentangled him from the net. They had to let go of his tail at one point to let the rope fall away and Dan seized his opportunity, snapping it up and catching one of the men on the chin. The man fell to the floor and Dan had a brief moment of pride before two more appeared to restrain him again.

Dan’s kind were bigger than humans, their bodies built for thriving in the cold, competitive marine environments, so Dan might’ve had a chance in overpowering the fishermen if he were fully grown. But he was still a child, a child now trying to fight against five, robust adult men. He had no chance.

The poor boy let out one more shout for his mother before he was lifted and dropped into a box that was slightly shorter than he was long. The men roughly positioned his tail so it curled around and no longer stuck out the top of the box, then a lid was placed on top and Dan was plunged into almost complete darkness.

Alone and scared, sealed in a dark box with only a few inches of water to keep his skin wet, Dan curled up a little more and started to cry while the boat engine roared to life and whisked him away from everything he knew.

———————————

“Come on mum! We’re going to miss it!”

The ten year old boy jumped down from the stair he’d been sat on, his shoes creating a loud bang against the wooden floor. That’d get his mum moving.

“We’re not going to miss it Phil, stop being so impatient,” Phil’s mother chuckled as she walked into the hallway, slipping her shoes on then taking her car keys down from the hook on the wall.

“But I want to get right to the front and see him first,” Phil whined, pushing his mum slightly to get her out of the door faster.

“If you push like that, I’m sure you’ll manage,” his mum said playfully, opening the door and watching her son run excitedly over to the car and clamber into the back seat.

Phil was buzzing with excitement and bouncing in his seat for the entire drive, pressing his face against the window as they drove under the brightly coloured banners that decorated the entrance to the aquarium’s car park.

Phil had always been interested in the ocean and the creatures that lived under it’s surface. His room was full of marine themed memorabilia, and an impressive collection of plushies and books of various sea creatures covered most of the surfaces and shelves. His interest spread across almost anything that lived in the water, but one animal had pretty much become an obsession. Mermaids, or merpeople to be more correct.

Phil was absolutely infatuated with them; reading about them, writing stories about them, drawing them and learning as much as he could about them. He had all sorts of toys and games focused on merpeople and he watched at least one tv programme about them a day.

And today he was actually going to see one, a real one. The aquarium nearby - a place Phil visited on a regular basis - had rescued one somewhere in the English Channel and were releasing it into the new enclosure that day. It’d been the talk of the city for weeks now and, as soon as he heard the news, Phil had demanded his parents take him.

Phil’s mum held onto his hand tightly as they joined the crowds of people queueing to get into the aquarium, the air around them buzzing with excitement. People had known about merpeople’s existence for a couple of decades now, but they were elusive and hard to catch so there were very few actually in captivity. It was usually only ones that had been injured or outcast and subsequently rescued who couldn’t live in the wild anymore and they were usually found over near America, it was incredibly rare to have one be found in the waters nearer Britain.

“They must be making a fortune today,” Phil’s mum murmured as they followed the signs to the correct exhibit, the corridors and walkways absolutely packed. She knew Phil was going to run off at some point to get closer to the exhibit, so she quickly agreed a place to meet him if he got lost before they entered the large room.

The aquarium had dedicated an entire room to the mermaid exhibit, one side covered in information boards while the other was taken up entirely by the tank. It was absolutely gargantuan, bigger than any tank Phil had ever seen in the aquarium, and was filled with rock formations that mimicked the natural habitat mermaids were known to reside in. There were stairs leading up to the raised walkway halfway up the tank, allowing for more people to view the contents with ease. It was brightly lit up and cast a bluish glow across the whole room, creating a very ethereal atmosphere.

Quickly getting permission from his mum, Phil dodged and squeezed his way through people’s legs and eventually got to the very front. He bobbed up and down on the balls of his feet and put both hands against the glass wall of the tank, leaning forward a little when an announcement came over the tannoy that the merman - Dan, they called him - was about to be released.

There was the sound of metal scraping and a heavy clang as a flap in the back of the tank slid open, Phil going up on his tip toes to catch his first glimpse of the merman.

It took a few moments, but eventually there was a flash of movement and a smallish figure darted out of the flap. Phil was mesmerised by the way the light glinted off the merman’s rippling tail, the scales transitioning from a glistening silver at his navel to a deep purple at the tip. His skin was incredibly smooth and slightly grey, Phil knew that it was a lot thicker than human skin to protect against the cold waters, and he had a halo of dark hair surrounding his head. He had a long fin that originated from the small of his back and large tail fins, both made of a thin, semi-translucent kind of flesh that oscillated gracefully as the merman swam up to the glass.

Phil watched as he hit the tank wall, confusion crossing his face as he placed his webbed hands against the glass, trying to figure out why he couldn’t swim any further. He was closer to Phil now, giving him a chance to study the creature’s face. Phil was surprised at the roundness of the merman’s cheeks and jawline, the wide dark eyes that were so obviously childlike.

Dan was only a boy, maybe even younger than Phil was himself.

And he was scared; now that he was over the initial shock at the majesty of the creature, Phil could see what looked like pure terror on Dan’s face. An uneasy feeling settled in Phil’s stomach as Dan quickly turned and sped to the other side of the tank, his solid tail banging loudly against the thick glass. The people around Phil ‘oooed’ and ‘ahhed’ as Dan started to swim back and forth, seemingly oblivious to the way he was almost in a frenzy as he tried to work out where he was and how to get out. As Dan passed by Phil, he could see the way his gills were fluttering, passing water through rapidly the same way a human’s breath would quicken in panic.

Phil could only watch as Dan’s state seemed to worsen, the boy blinking harshly as cameras flashed and followed his every movement. It was amazing to watch the way he moved through the water with ease and grace, but Phil couldn’t stop looking at his fearful expression and the obvious tension in his muscles.

Eventually, Dan seemed to have realised that no amount of hitting the glass or swimming around would get him out of the tank. He gradually drifted to a stop and started to sink, ending up slumped against the glass with his tail laying lifelessly on the hard floor. His shoulders seemed to be shuddering slightly, almost as if he were…crying.

Phil shuffled over and knelt down so he was directly opposite where Dan was sat, staring out of his tank sorrowfully. There was something running down his face, a thick, gel-like substance that left stains on his cheeks. It wasn’t hard to make the link between it and human tears. He looked up a little when Phil placed his hand against the glass, hoping Dan would recognise the kind smile he was sending him. He’d read something about merpeople using the same facial expressions for communication and it seemed to be true, because Dan’s lips twitched up a little.

He was looking into Phil’s eyes, giving Phil a chance to see the the impossibly dark irises and the second eyelid that covered them horizontally when he blinked. His eyes were gorgeous, like black coffee with flecks of gold leaf smattered across the surface. So beautiful yet so sad.

Phil smiled encouragingly as Dan slowly lifted his hand, placing it against the glass opposite Phil’s. It was slightly bigger overall, but his fingers seemed a little shorter due to the translucent webbing that stretched between them.

The moment was broken as someone snapped a photo, the sudden, bright light of the camera flash spooking Dan and causing him to dash away to settle down in one of the crevices in the artificial rock formations decorating his tank.

He didn’t look like he was going to be coming out anytime soon, so Phil let out a heavy breath and dropped his hand back down to his side. He got to his feet and slid back into the crowd, weaving around people until he found his mum.

They wandered around the rest of the aquarium for a little while, everywhere significantly quieter than the room with Dan’s exhibit, but Phil’s mum quickly realised something was up with her son. He’d usually be running from tank to tank, spouting off random facts about all the animals at an impressive speed. But he was staying right next to his mum, holding onto her hand as he silently followed the colourful fish with his eyes.

“You okay, dear?” his mum asked after they’d left and were driving back home, “You’re awfully quiet.”

Phil was silent for a few more moments. “Did you think he looked sad?” Phil asked eventually, “The merman? I thought he looked sad.”

“He did,” Phil’s mum sighed. She’d noticed how distressed the young merman had been and was mildly disgusted. She didn’t agree with keeping large marine mammals in captivity, especially not ones as intelligent as merpeople. But that was all a bit too complex to explain to a ten year old and she didn’t want to upset him so she just smiled over at Phil for a moment and said, “It’s probably just because he’s in a new place. You’d be a bit sad if you had to move house, wouldn’t you?”

“I guess. I made him smile though, I think, so can we come and see him again? It might make him feel a bit happier if he sees someone he knows is friendly.”

“Of course we can, love,” Phil’s mum smiled at his sweet innocence, “We’ll come back whenever you want.”

————————————

_11 years old_

Over the following year, Phil visited the aquarium as often as he could, always spending a majority of his visit sitting on the floor by Dan’s tank and watching him. For his eleventh birthday, his parents had bought him a pass that gave him unlimited access to the aquarium for a year, much to their wallet’s relief.

Phil could watch Dan swimming up and down in his tank for hours, almost hypnotised by the shimmering of his tail and the smoothness with which he moved himself through the water. Sometimes Dan didn’t even acknowledge him, he’d just swim laps around the perimeter of the tank or be resting somewhere in the rock formation with only the end of his tail visible between the cracks. Other times he come and sit at the glass next to Phil, watching him silently with those big, dark eyes. He slowly came to recognise Phil, and moved to be near him with increasing frequency. Dan had even whistled and clicked at Phil a couple of times which, even though he was clueless to their translation, Phil took as being a good thing.

In year 7, much to Phil’s delight, his science class did a whole topic focusing on marine life. They looked at how different species were adapted to their habitats, how the food chains were structured and the effects of overfishing on both marine life and humans. While he enjoyed all of that, Phil was definitely most excited about the module on marine mammals because it included merpeople.

His teacher had been impressed with Phil’s general knowledge on the subject, though a few of the other students had teased him about it. Apparently, liking mermaids was girly. Phil really didn’t care what they thought though, some ignorant kids opinion on him wasn’t going to affect what he loved.

The best bit of the module, by far, was the trip to the aquarium. Even though he went pretty much every week, Phil never pass up an opportunity to go to his favourite place. Phil listened attentively as they were guided around the exhibits by one of the keepers, eager to learn as much as he could. He knew quite a bit of the information already, but there was always going to be something he didn’t know so he wasn’t going to risk missing out.

“And here we have our merpeople exhibit,” the man guiding them gestured around the room proudly, “I’m sure you’ve heard about our merman by now. Dan’s quite lazy and likes to hide in the rocks, go see if you can spot him.” The gaggle of school children were only stopped from running over to the tank by a stern word from the teacher, though the excited buzz was still there as they congregated around the glass wall.

“There he is! I can see him!” One of the boys shrieked, setting all the children off muttering and pointed as Dan slowly emerged from behind a rock, eyes scanning across the crowd of noisy children. He looked fed up and tired and was clearly about to swim back into hiding when he spotted Phil. The people couldn’t be _that_ bad if Phil were with them, he reasoned, so he kicked himself off and swam closer to the glass, clicking a couple times so he didn’t bang into it. He still hadn’t quite worked the transparent wall out yet, even after b being confined within it for a year.

“Can you all hear that clicking?” The guide asked, getting a few nods in return from the children who weren’t totally absorbed with watching Dan, “He’s doing that so he can tell where the glass wall is, otherwise he’ll bash into it. The clicks bounce back off glass and he can hear them, like throwing a ball at a wall and catching it. The sooner it comes back, the closer the wall is.”

“Don’t they make those noises to talk to each other too?” A girl asked.

“We don’t know for sure, but we think they do,” the guide nodded, watching Dan closely as he swam back and forth a little above the children’s heads, “Out in the ocean, scientists have heard them making a huge range of noises so we think they have an entire language. The ones found in the seas around America and England can also speak English, though no one is really sure how they came about learning it. They can only speak it if their heads are above the surface though, because they need to have air in their lungs to pass over their vocal chords and make the right sounds.”

“They can breathe in air and in water, can’t they?” Phil piped up, getting an impressed nod from the guide in return.

“They can indeed. They have gills and lungs, meaning they can get their oxygen from the air and the water.”

“If they can talk English, how come you don’t just ask them about the things we want to know?” One of the boy’s interrupted, his hands pressed against the glass. He’d been hitting it to try and get Dan’s attention but only succeeded in frightening him away to the other side of the tank.

“Well, they’re not the most sociable of creatures,” the guide chuckled. Phil ignored the way the word ‘creature’ didn’t lay quite right on his mind, “As you can see from Dan, they have a bit of an attitude on them. We’ve tried to speak to them, but many of them aren’t really interested in talking to us. We’ve had a few who co-operate, but not enough to get a massive amount of information. We were hoping to communicate with Dan, but he hasn’t said a single word of English since he’d was brought here.”

“How fast can mermaids swim?”

Phil tuned out the question being asked since he knew the answer already (thirty miles per hour at top speed) and wandered back over to the tank. Dan had noticed Phil coming closer and immediately swam over. The class all huddled around Phil to try and get a better look at Dan close up, but Dan seemed to just ignore them all.

He whistled softly and put his hand up on the glass, looking at Phil expectantly. Phil was stunned, Dan had picked him out of the crowd and was trying to initiate interaction, so it took him a few moments to collect his thoughts and mirror Dan’s actions. Even the tour guide was gobsmacked by Dan’s behaviour.

“Woah, what’s with his eyes?” A girl gasped, watched as Dan slowly blinked and revealed the extra eyelid.

“They-uh-Merpeople have two sets of eyelids,” the tour guide stammered a little due to the shock of seeing Dan even acknowledge someone other than the keeper who fed him, “It helps protect them from the salt water and all the stuff in it.”

“I wanna see, stop hogging it’s attention Lester,” one of the boys, Kieron, shoved Phil to the side and took his place in front of Dan, slapping his hand onto where Dan’s was touching the glass.

Phil watched from where he’d fallen onto the floor as Dan’s body jolted back a little, surprised at the sudden movement. The merman’s eyes narrowed and he flung his tail forward, smacking the glass with it then swimming sideways so he was level with Phil. His expression was one of concern, unsure if Phil was on the floor due to an injury.

Endeared by the worry of the other boy and feeling a little smug about how much he’d held Dan’s attention, Phil climbed back up to his feet and sent Dan a smile to let him know he was okay. Dan nodded and smiled back at Phil then, after hitting the glass near Kieron again with his tail, swam to the back of the tank and settled down atop the rocks.

“I’ve never seen him act like that towards a human,” the guide murmured, his eyes lingering on Dan for a few moments longer before moving over to Phil, “Has he ever done that with you before?”

“Yeah,” Phil shrugged, knowing his connection with Dan was a special thing but not understanding why the guide was so shocked. He was kind to Dan and got a positive response in return, surely that was obvious, “He does it pretty much every time I visit. He used to only do it for a second but he quite often sits by me now.”

“That’s incredible,” the man breathed, looking back into the tank to see nothing of Dan other than a glint of his scales peeking over the rocks at the back of the tank. The teacher had taken the other children over to read through some of the information boards, not noticing that Phil was lingering behind with the tour guide.

“Why? All I did was smile at him, if you’re nice to him then he’ll be nice to you. He might even speak to you.”

“It’s not that simple, kid,” the tour guide pulled off his hat and ran a hand through his hair, his eyes taking on a look that Phil didn’t quite understand, “It’ll be a miracle if he ever likes any of us enough to look at us for more than a few seconds. I don’t really blame him either, not after what he went through.”

“You mean when you rescued him? They said on the news that he was abandoned and some fishermen saved him. Is there something to do with that that’s making him not like you all? Maybe he thinks you took him away from his home or that it was your fault or something.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Phil was about to ask the tour guide why he sounded so sad, why he stared morosely at the tiny portion of Dan that was visible, but he’d already left and herded the group into the next room.

——————————————

_13 years old_

“You must be the birthday boy,” Phil was greeted in the reception by an overly cheery - but friendly - looking woman wearing the blue and purple polo shirt that was mandatory for all the aquarium employees, “I’m Cherry and I’ll be taking you around today. Well, more just keeping an eye on you and making sure you don’t murder any of the animals.”

“I’ll try my best not to,” Phil giggled, trying not to let his giddiness overflow and make a fool out of himself. He was thirteen now, he needed to act mature and not squeal with glee over getting to ‘be a fishkeeper for a day’. His dad had seen the experience day tickets advertised on the aquarium’s website when he’d gone to buy Phil his usual birthday gift of the annual access pass, and knew immediately that it would be the perfect gift. He’d been right; Phil had been elated when he opened his card and the ticket fell out, hugging his parents for almost two minutes and thanking them profusely.

His morning was filled with being shown around ‘behind the scenes’ as Cherry called it, seeing some of the hatcheries and helping with putting food out in some of the bigger tanks. He even got to assist some keepers in releasing a group of young otters into the main enclosure.

After having a quick lunch in the aquarium cafe, Phil met back up with a grinning Cherry. She announced that they were about to get to, “the absolute best bit of the day,” before leading Phil through a door marked with ‘Private’ in thick, red letters.

“So, your parents told us that you have a bit of a thing for merpeople? And that you like to visit our merman?” Cherry quirked an eyebrow and turned to look at Phil as they made their way down a narrow corridor. Phil nodded slowly in reply, not sure where she was going with this, “Well, it’s Dan’s feeding time now, how would you like to give him his lunch?”

“Really? You’ll let me do that?” Phil was delighted when Cherry nodded, leading him through another door to the private area at the back of Dan’s tank. It was a medium sized room with a row of cabinets and fridges along one wall and a portion of Dan’s tank protruding from the other. There were a short series of metal steps leading to the top of the tank, a heavy looking lid lying over the opening of the exposed portion glass.

Dan had been floating just below the lid and Phil was impressed; he obviously had some concept of time or routine and knew it was time for him to be fed. Phil couldn’t help but smile when Dan recognised him, letting out a loud whistle and swimming around in a small loop before nudging the lid with his hands.

“Seems they weren’t exaggerating when they said he likes you,” Cherry laughed, walking over to one of the fridges and opening it. It was filled with bright red plastic boxes, each labelled with a date and either breakfast, lunch or dinner. Cherry pulled out one with ‘2nd Feb: Lunch’ scrawled across the front in black sharpie and threw the lid in the sink before bringing it over to Phil.

Phil peered inside and was relieved to find filleted steaks of various fish. He’d been expecting to see whole fish, glassy eyes staring up at him and mouths hanging open gormlessly. “How come it’s not - like - proper fish?” Phil asked, taking the box from Cherry and following her over to the tank, “Wouldn’t he be eating whole fish in the wild?”

“Well,” Cherry started to unlock the padlocks holding the tank lid down while she explained to Phil, “We think they usually use tools to fillet the fish they catch. There’s evidence of them catching and killing the fish then taking them back to their homes before gutting them and taking out the bones using tools. Unfortunately, Dan didn’t seem to have learnt that behaviour before he was abandoned and we don’t have the ability to teach him, so we just give him already filleted fish. Right, all you have to do is hold the fish down into the water and he’ll take it from you.”

Phil nodded again and walked up the stairs, the top of the tank now at eye level for him. Cherry gave him a plastic stool to stand on, the tank designed to be accessible for people taller than a thirteen year old boy, then heaved the lid up and off the tank.

There was an eruption of salty water and, suddenly, Dan was there, his grey, webbed fingers gripping the rim of the tank and holding his torso up as he leant towards Phil. He was smiling hugely, showing off two rows of pointed teeth peeking out from between his slightly purple lips. The fluorescent lights of the room made his skin gleam and Phil could see that it was slightly more rubbery than his own, though it wasn’t such a difference that he didn’t look human.

“Hello!” Dan’s voice wasn’t what Phil had expected; it was just like a normal, thirteen year old boy’s voice. Nothing particularly majestic or melodic like the merpeople that populated mythology and media, just a normal voice.

“Hi,” Phil giggled, trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was speaking to a _merman_. He remembered the tour guide from the previous year telling him that Dan hadn’t spoken since arriving at the aquarium and, judging by Cherry’s wide eyes, that had continued to be true until a few moments ago.

“It’s nice to finally speak to you, Phil,” Dan said, his tail swirling slightly to help him hold his body above the water. His speech was a little slow and his accent had a slight, unfamiliar twang to it, but he’d clearly been speaking English for a long time.

“How-How do you know my name?” A small crease formed between Phil’s eyebrows; he couldn’t think of any way Dan could have found out his name.

“I can hear through the glass,” Dan rolled his eyes, his tone suggesting it was the most obvious thing in the world. Considering he used echolocation, Phil realised that it kind of was. Neither boy noticed Cherry scribbling down what Dan was saying on a notepad.

“I’d never even thought of that,” Phil chuckled, eyes trailing over Dan’s lean torso and the small strip of scales visible over the tank before he reached into the box and pulled out a salmon fillet, “You want some lunch then?”

Dan reached forward eagerly and grabbed the salmon from Phil, his fingers briefly brushing Phil’s as he did so. Phil shuddered a little, the feel of Dan’s cold, wet, supple skin was unlike anything he’d ever felt before but in no way unpleasant.

Dan’s sharp teeth easily sliced through the pink flesh of the salmon and he scoffed down the entire fillet in a few moments. He held his hand out towards Phil, the webbing stretched thin as he looked at Phil expectantly. Phil chortled as he watched Dan scarf down the rest of the fish from the box, licking his lips in satisfaction once he finished the final fillet.

“You enjoy that?” Phil grinned, laughing when Dan nodded enthusiastically, “Is it same fish you had when you were in the ocean?”

Phil frowned as he watched Dan’s smile slowly slip off his face, his eyes darkening and filling with sadness. For a moment, it loosed like he was going to swim away, but instead he just sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “Some of it is. I don’t really know because it looks different to how I ate it and they all taste pretty similar.”

“Oh, okay,” Phil bit his lip and tried to think of something to say, not wanting to upset Dan again. He hadn’t even thought about what he was saying, but bringing up Dan’s past life must’ve been a difficult topic for the boy. Thinking of his home would make him think  of whatever events led up to his rescue, of being abandoned by his family and left alone to die, “So-uh-I guess I have to go now, my mum’s going to be coming to pick me up at two.”

“Oh, okay,” Dan sighed, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice but not succeeding.

“I’ll come back, I promise,” Phil added quickly upon seeing the disheartened slump of Dan’s shoulders, “I might not be able to actually speak to you but I’ll visit every week just like I always do.”

Phil wasn’t sure if that was the way to cheer Dan up, maybe he wouldn’t want to see Phil again after being upset by Phil’s insensitive words. But, at the promise of future visits, Dan’s mouth spread into a wide smile and he looked over to Cherry, “Hey! Can you let Phil come back here and speak to me again? I can’t speak to him when he’s on the other side of the glass.”

Dan’s tone was notably different when he spoke to Cherry than when he’d spoken to Phil, much more blunt and a little harsh. It was obvious he didn’t like her, though Phil was clueless as to why.

“Oh-I-I’ll have to speak to speak to my boss but we can probably work something out,” Cherry said, looking a little stunned to have Dan speak directly to her after years of silence. She knew it wasn’t really orthodox to have members of the public in the back rooms, she’d only brought Phil through because she knew he had a special interest in merpeople and her boss wasn’t around to tell her off about it. Though, if Dan was willing to speak to Phil, letting them talk could be an unique opportunity to find out more about his life in the wild.

“Thank you,” both boys chorused simultaneously, grinning widely. Phil said goodbye to Dan, sending him a small wave as he climbed back down the stairs and left the room. He didn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day.

————————————-

_16 years old_

Phil straightened his purple and blue polo shirt as he pushed open the ‘private’ door and made his way through the now familiar little corridor. At sixteen years old, he’d been working at the aquarium for six months now and had easily convinced his boss to let him be in charge of Dan’s care. Phil was the only person Dan would stay around for more than the ten minutes it took him to eat meals and the only person he would come out of the water for. The keeper who gave Dan his breakfast and lunch had to drop the fish into the water while Phil just passed the fillets over while he and Dan chatted.

He’d been given the position on the condition he noted down any information Dan gave him about the way merpeople lived in the wild or any adaptations they were currently unaware of. Having a merman willingly open up to a human was an invaluable research opportunity they weren’t willing to pass up.

Phil grinned as he pushed the door to Dan’s back room open, seeing the usual figure floating just below the lid. Dan had grown since he first arrived at the aquarium, seeming to have hit his growth spurt about the same time as Phil. He was still a little shorter though, so long as you didn’t count the long, ribbon like tapering on his tail fins.

With practised ease, Phil unlocked and flipped the lid open, shielding his eyes from the salt water spray that always accompanied Dan’s surfacing. “What happened to your hair?” Dan asked as soon as he’d taken a breath of air, “It’s changed colour.”

Phil chuckled as he jumped down from the raised platform, explaining as he gathered Dan’s dinner from the fridge. He enjoyed describing all the little elements that made up human life, and knew that Dan liked hearing about them as much as Phil liked hearing about life under the sea. “I dyed it black. We have this…stuff called dye that you can put onto your hair and it’ll change the colour. Whaddya think? Look good?”

Dan titled his head to the side a little and examined the inky black locks that had replaced the familiar, mousy brown hair of his friend. “I guess, it’s a bit weird,” Dan looked slightly disgruntled by the change, but shrugged it off, “I’ll get used to it. That’s cool how you can change your hair though, we don’t have anything like that.”

“I guess it’d be pretty difficult to use in the ocean, considering you need to leave it for an hour before washing it off,” Phil agreed and climbed back up the stairs, holding the box of fish out to Dan so he could help himself, “I got some prawns for you today, I know they’re your favourite.”

Dan smiled his sharp toothed smile and grabbed a handful of the prawns, his happy thanks muffled slightly by the mouthful of seafood. Phil just shook his head fondly, Dan always ate like Phil was going to take the fish away and eat it himself. He liked sushi but, as he’d told Dan repeatedly, he wasn’t the greatest fan of whole, raw cod steaks.

“Was your day good?” Dan asked when he picked a picked up another handful of prawns.

“It was average, just general school stuff,” Phil shrugged his shoulders, his eyes scanning across Dan’s face and focusing on the dark bags that hung heavy under his eyes, “You had a rough day?”

“Yeah, what time of the year of is it?”

“It’s September, autumn,” Phil knew Dan measured the year in seasons and he’d spoken to Phil about much he disliked the inability to follow time himself. There were no windows in the room and, with the artificial temperature control on his tank, he had no way to feel the slight temperature changes that would indicate the time of year in the wild.

“It’s migration time,” Dan said simply, finishing the last of the prawns before responding to Phil’s confused look, “At the start and the end of summer, my people migrate north for the better fishing. My body knows that I should be swimming back from the northern home and this tank is not large enough for me to swim the distance I want to. It makes me feel very restless.”

“You have another home?” Phil raised his eyebrows a little in surprise. Dan seemed more comfortable speaking about his life in the wild now he was older and was willing to explain the various aspects of his life and culture that Phil was curious about. He must have gotten over the trauma of being abandoned somewhat, though he hadn’t yet gone as far as to talk to Phil about his family. Phil didn’t mind in the slightest, he was happy to wait until Dan was comfortable speaking about it and, if that never came, Phil was grateful enough for everything else Dan had shared already.

“Yes, we have a home very far north that we travel to every summer from the age of thirteen. Depending on currents, it takes around thirty days to travel there. That’s about a month, yeah?” Dan got a nod from Phil before continuing, having slowly learnt how humans measure time in his six years assimilating with them, “We stay for…three months then travel back again in autumn before the waters get too cold. I always looked forward to going and seeing the northern home, but I was brought here before I reached my thirteenth. During the travelling months, my body tells me I should be swimming but I can’t in this tank.”

“Can’t you, like, swim laps or something? That might get some of the energy out or something?” Phil suggested, picking up on the way Dan’s lip curled slightly on the word ‘tank’.

“Oh yeah, swimming in circles will definitely recreate the feeling of migrating with my pod,” Dan said hotly, “Great idea Phil.”

“No need to be snappy, I was just trying to help,” Phil muttered, throwing the empty fish box over to the sink then sitting up on the steps the maintenance divers used to climb into the tank.

“Yeah, well I don’t need your help,” anger was starting to filter into Dan’s voice, his eyes hardening into a glare, “Nothing you can do can make this stupid tank more bearable.”

“Look, I know it’s not the ocean but you could try looking on the bright side sometimes rather than just sulking,” Phil snapped back, “I know it sucks but it could be a lot worse.”

“Oh really? Tell me how it could be worse Phil?” Dan was getting properly angry now, his tail moving jerkily as he used it to keep himself afloat, “Tell me how it could be worse than being shut in a tank that’s smaller than my nursery cave was and having people gawk at me and take pictures and bang on the glass to get my attention even though it’s clear I don’t like it. How about the fact that I’m not growing properly? That I should be longer than this but the damn confinement has stunted my growth to the point where I probably won’t reach full length.”

“I-I know it’s not as good for you as being in the wild, but it’s better than being dead Dan,” Phil said, almost pleadingly. He didn’t understand why Dan was so angry about being rescued after his family left him to die.

“What the hell are you on about?” Dan’s eyes were still fiery but a hint of confusion had seeped in.

“It’s better than it would’ve been if those fishermen had left you there. I know you miss your family Dan, but you need to realise that, even if you’d stayed in the ocean, you still wouldn’t be with them. They abandoned you Dan, you would’ve lost your old life no matter whether humans got involved or not.”

Dan’s expression shifted from rage, to understanding and right back to rage again. “Is that what they told you? That they fucking _rescued_ me?” Dan laughed mirthlessly, shaking his head and staring unwaveringly into Phil’s wide eyes, “They kidnapped me Phil. I was out with my brother when I saw a boat and swam over to it. Then, they threw a net behind me, pulled me up onto the boat and shut me in a pitch black box with barely enough water inside to keep me wet. They stole me away from my family and my home, kept me in a small tank in the back room then put me in this exhibit. I was ten years old and no one told me what was going on and was I was _terrified._ I can’t believe they’re acting like it was some sort of heroic act.”

Phil was shocked and could only stand there, staring at Dan and seeing him in a whole new light. “That’s why you don’t like any of the other keepers,” Phil whispered, all the little things that hadn’t seemed quite right finally falling into place. The sad look on the tour guide’s face when he’d spoken about Dan, the terror on Dan’s face when he was first released into the tank and Dan’s general disdain for any aquarium worker other than Phil, “I…I’m so sorry Dan. I had no idea.”

Dan sighed heavily and ran a hand through his wet hair, making it stick out at all angles. It was a habit he’d picked up from being surrounded by humans, along with a few other things like biting his fingernails and scratching the back of his neck when he was nervous or uncertain. “It’s okay, you had no way to know,” he mumbled, letting go of the tank edge and letting himself begin sinking back into the water, “I’m going to go have a sleep.”

“No…Dan come back,” Phil didn’t get his words out until Dan had disappeared back under the surface, no doubt swimming down to the tiny bit of space he had that was completely secluded and hidden from the public view. Phil knew Dan would have heard him speaking, his hearing was exceptional and he had confided in Phil that he kept himself entertained by listening to the conversations that occurred on the opposite side of the glass, but the look on his face before he left had told Phil that he was most likely going to be ignored.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Phil headed over to the little row of counters and started to prepare Dan’s meals for the next week. He’d been disgusted by the idea of a whole fish when he was younger, but gutting and filleting a salmon was now part of his weekly routine.

After about an hour, Phil had prepared as much food as he could and Dan still hadn’t reappeared. Phil decided he should just leave him to settle down and called out a goodbye before walking back down the corridor to the main area of the aquarium, looking for some other work to do.

——————————-

Phil returned the next day and couldn’t help feeling disappointed to find that Dan wasn’t in his usual spot. Phil collected the right container from the fridge - adding a few more shrimp to try and cheer Dan up - and noticed a post-it stuck to the fridge door.

_‘Hey Phil, Dan wouldn’t eat his breakfast or lunch today. Let us know if he won’t eat dinner so we can get the vet in to check him over. Thanks!’_

Phil frowned as he read through the note, quickly jumping up the stairs and unlocking the lid to the tank. From the raised vantage point, he could see that Dan was swimming lazy laps around the tank and occasionally glancing up to where Phil was now stood. He must be starving by now, he needed a lot more calories a day than humans did and he hadn’t eaten anything yet.

When it became obvious he wasn’t going to come up to the surface and take his food as usual, Phil took out a single steak and held it down into the water. Dan still didn’t so much as look over, but he did stop swimming. He relented when Phil started to move the fish back and forth, the scent in the water being too much to resist. He didn’t surface, he just grabbed the fish as he swam past quickly, his strong tail bumping against Phil’s arm in an almost sulky way. Phil knew he was genuinely upset, but the likeness to a grumpy child was most certainly there.

“Right, I can understand why you’re upset, but there’s no reason for you to be like this with me,” Phil said as he held another piece of fish down for Dan, not missing the way he rolled his eyes while snatching the food and quickly biting into it, “I’m serious Dan, do you really think I’d be anything other than disgusted by what they did to you? I’d do anything to make it better, get you back home, but I can’t Dan.”

Dan’s eyes locked onto Phil and finished the piece of food before sighing, his gills opening widely as he let out the heavy ‘breath’ of water. He was still for a few more moments and, just as Phil was about to give up and just accept that it was going to be a silent feeding session, the familiar sound of splashing filled the room. “Why can’t you? Surely there’s some way you can get me back to the ocean,” Dan said accusingly, dark eyes narrowed.

“There really isn’t Dan,” Phil sighed, offering another piece of fish to Dan which was taken much more calmly than it usually was, “I honestly hate seeing you stuck in here, ever since I saw you crying when you were first released I knew there was something not right about this. You’re not meant to be kept in a tank, you’re supposed to be free and out in the open ocean. I care about you Dan - I really do - and if there was anything I could do to help, I would do it in an instant.”

Dan stared at Phil with an intensity that Phil had never seen in a pair of human eyes. Eventually, his expression softened and he offered Phil a soft, apologetic smile, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t expect you to do something like that. I just a creature in a tank, we’re not even the same species.”

“I don’t care about that at all Dan,” Phil said, a small crease forming between his eyes. Did Dan honestly think Phil saw him as something akin to an animal? He threw the now empty box over to the other side of the room and stepped up to the tank, placing a hand on Dan’s arm. They hadn’t had much physical contact, it had mostly been Dan’s fingers brushing Phil’s as he snatched his food, but neither boy flinched away. Phil liked the supple, smoothness of Dan’s insulated skin and Dan enjoyed the warmth that radiated from where Phil’s skin met his own, “You’re my friend, maybe even my best friend. I don’t care that you have a tail and gills, you’re funny and kind and downright fascinating. I mean it when I say I would do anything to get you home and make you happy, that’s what friends do.”

“You really see me as a friend? An actual friend?” Dan murmured, eyes boring into Phil’s as he searched for some sign that he was being dishonest. He apparently didn’t find any, because a smile spread across his face and he threw his arms around Phil’s neck, not paying any heed to the fact that he was soaking wet.

Phil didn’t care about the wetness, he just wrapped his arms around Dan and hugged him back with equal vigor. “Of course I do,” Phil chuckled, running his hands up and down Dan’s protruding spine fondly. His hands moved smoothly over Dan’s slippery skin and, now that he had a chance to touch it properly, Phil noticed that it felt more like silk than wet rubber as he’d always assumed. He found himself loving the feeling of having Dan in his arms, even if he was going to have to change his shirt after they parted, “Do you really think I’d put with the constant smell of fish otherwise?”

Dan laughed and flicked his tail up to shower Phil with water, “You could’ve had some weird fish fetish or something, I guess you kind of do since you have a fish for a friend.”

———————————————————

Summer rolled around quickly and Phil was glad to start working full days, though his parents did make him keep at least three days a week free to socialise with people who didn’t have tails. He was a bit pouty about it to start with, but getting to spend all day with Dan four times a week certainly made up for the lost time.

Phil liked to arrive early so he could spend time with Dan before giving him his breakfast and leaving to do some work in the other departments of the aquarium. Now that he spent all day there, his boss wanted him to actually do some work rather than just sit around with Dan the whole time. Arriving before the aquarium opened meant everything was quiet and Phil wouldn’t get in trouble for talking to Dan when visitors were in; apparently people were starting to get disinterested in him anyway, and having him hanging around the back of the tank all day did nothing to help.

Today seemed to be different though because the car park was full of lorries and vans, each decorated with the logo of some sort of construction company.

“You didn’t tell me they were doing any work on the place, looks like it’s going to be a big extension too,” his mum said as she pulled up outside the front entrance.

“I didn’t know they were,” Phil shrugged, quickly kissing her cheek then climbing out of the car, “See you later.”

Phil waved as his mum drove away then made his way inside, immediately heading through to Dan’s room because he knew he was running a little late and Dan got grumpy when he had to wait for his breakfast.

Apparently, he didn’t need to worry because Dan wasn’t waiting and tapping impatiently on the glass with his tail. Instead, Phil was greeted with a group of people crowding around the visible area of the tank, Dan no doubt hiding somewhere on the other side. He didn’t like having people other than Phil near the opening to his tank.

“Uhh, what’s going on in here?” Phil asked nervously, knocking the door because he wasn’t sure whether he should be there or not. He recognised one of the women as the owner of the whole aquarium, someone he hadn’t seen out of the back offices once.

“Hi Phil, just go ahead and feed Dan as normal,” Cherry, the worker who had shown Phil around back when he was thirteen and with whom he had become close to as a friend since he started working there, said with a smile, though there was a clear undertone of strain in her voice, “These guys just want to observe him.”

“Oh, okay then,” Phil said slowly, collecting the box with Dan’s breakfast in it then shuffling past the group of people to get access to the steps up the tank. It was already open and he could see the light reflecting off Dan’s scales as he paced up and down in front of the glass on the visitors side of the tank. After calling him a few times and dropping a few bits of fish into the water to lure him in, Dan finally swam over and surfaced. His dark eyes immediately narrowed and he eyed the crowd of people warily, not taking his gaze off them as he started eating the food Phil offered. “Just ignore them,” Phil murmured, glancing over at the people to see them leaning together and discussing something in low voices.

“Why are they even here? They’ve been here for, like, an hour, just watching me swimming and writing stuff down,” Dan grumbled, his voice low. He was clearly disgruntled by the observers.

“No idea, apparently they want to observe you. Maybe they’re just researchers or something,” Phil suggested, shrugging his shoulders, nonchalant.

“I thought the researchers had given up, they weren’t too interested in a moody eleven year old who just hid whenever they came in,” Dan said with a small smirk in Phil’s direction, though he was still staring firmly at the people watching him.

“It’s lucky you were like that, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been able to use ‘research opportunities’ as an excuse to waste so much time talking to you.”

“I bet they think you’re some sort of fish whisperer or something,” Dan snickered, finally moving his gaze to Phil.

“Technically you’re not a fish. You’re more likely a mammal, though you don’t actually fit all of the typical classification. The only thing that would classify you as a fish are the gills; the warm blood, respiratory system, directions of your fins, way your tail moves and the fact that your females have live births and mammary glands all point towards you being a mammal. Some people think the scales would make you a fish but you also have hair and there are mammals with scales so maybe you’re just a distant marine relative of a…” Phil trailed off when he noticed Dan’s raised eyebrows, “Sorry, I was rambling again, wasn’t I?”

“Yep, you went all ocean nerd on me again,” Dan giggled as he used his claw-like nails to pick bits of fish out from his teeth, “Don’t worry, I quite like it. You know more about me than I do.”

“Yeah but you know the interesting stuff,” Phil pointed out, “Anyone can look at a list of characteristics and decided whether you’re a mammal or a fish but only you can tell us  about how you can recognise any member of your pod by just looking at the scale patterns on their tails. Or about how merpeople propose to each other by catching a opah fish and giving it to the other person.”

“You’re saying that like it’s really weird thing to do, your kind give each other a weird bit of metal to put on their fingers,” Dan look disgruntled as he spoke about the human customs Phil had told him about, “What’s the point in that. You can’t eat a bit of metal.”

“We don’t give it to them to eat like you do with the fish, it’s just for them to wear so other people know they’re getting married. And it’s a nice gift to give to the person you love,” Phil shrugged.

“It’s still weird and impractical,” Dan huffed, making Phil giggled at just how peeved Dan seemed over the issue.

After a little longer talking it was time for the aquarium to open to the public so Phil had to say goodbye and shut the tank lid, leaving Dan to entertain the visitors until his lunchtime. Phil heard the group of people slowly filtering out as he clicked the final padlock shut on Dan’s tank, the boss of the aquarium saying something about showing them the ‘plans for the performance area’. What did their aquarium need a performance area for? They didn’t have any dolphins or sea lions and certainly no orcas.

“Who were they then?” Phil gestured for Cherry to stay behind as he started washing up the box that had held Dan’s breakfast, “Why were they observing Dan?”

Cherry hesitated for a moment, seemingly reluctant to answer Phil’s question. “They’re animal behaviourists and trainers,” she said eventually, her voice sounding slightly heated, “They trying to decide what kind of tricks they can train Dan to do. They’re going to put him in shows and stuff, like they do in Seaworld. That’s what the building work is, a ‘stage tank’ for him to perform in.” Cherry could see the rage building in Phil’s expression and quickly spoke before he could open his mouth, “Now don’t you get angry at me, I’m as unhappy about it as you are.”

“But how can they do this?” Phil ran a hand through his hair and shook his head, shocked at what they were planning to do to Dan, “He’s not just an animal they can train. He thinks and has feelings and is intelligent. They can’t do this to him!”

“They can and they will,” Cherry sighed, “Dan’s not a novelty anymore, more aquariums are getting merpeople and theirs are more interesting than Dan because they aren’t alone. People are bored. They need to do something to make Dan relevant again and get the visitors back, apparently teaching him to jump through hoops is what will do that.”

Phil was about to say something when he was interrupted by a dull thunk from the tank, turning to see a furious looking Dan banging his tail on the glass to get their attention. Phil had forgotten about Dan’s advanced hearing that enable him to hear conversations on the other side of the glass. Phil shot Cherry a look, asking her to leave and give him some privacy to speak to Dan, then went to unlock the tank lid again.

“I’m not doing it!” Dan’s annoyed voice filled the room at the same time as the fountain of water that accompanied his surfacing. His eyes were fiery and his expression was actually terrifying, “I’m not going to let them ‘train’ me and have me perform like some sort of circus animal! I’m an intelligent creature and I refuse to be reduced to that. They’ve taken my family and my culture and I’m not going to let them take away my dignity too!”

“Shh Dan, calm down. I’m not the one you need to be angry at,” Phil motioned with his hand for Dan to hush, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention, “I’ll try and speak to some people and convince them to stop this whole thing but I don’t think I’ll get anywhere. They’ve already started building the show tank.”

“They can’t _make_ me do it though,” Dan huffed, “They can’t force me to perform for them.”

“I know that,” Phil sighed, placing a hand on Dan’s arm and smiling sadly at him, “But I’m just worried about what will happen if you do that. You’re not making them much money anymore, Dan, and the fact they’re willing to do something this extreme suggests they need to really up the excitement. If they build it all and you don’t co-operate they might sell you to another aquarium or a research lab or something to get the money back. They might take you away from here and I don’t think resisting is worth that risk.”

“But Phil, they’re going make me seem so stupid,” Dan whined, staring into Phil’s eyes and pleading for him to give a way out of the awful situation, “They already think I’m no smarter than an average marine mammal, this’ll make them think I’m as stupid as a sea lion.”

“I know Dan, and I’m so sorry but I really don’t see a way out of this. I’ll try and figure something out but…just go with it for now and try to behave yourself. Don’t give them an excuse to be harsh with you.” Phil had seen a handful documentaries about the methods some establishments used to train animals and it was safe to say the thought of any of them being used against Dan made Phil feel a little sick.

“Fine,” Dan pouted but gave Phil a small smile, knowing the other boy meant it when he promised he’d try to find an alternative. Dan knew Phil cared deeply about him and his happiness, “I should probably go swim around a bit now, I don’t want to get you in trouble for keeping me back here away from the visitors.”

“Okay, I’ll see you at lunch,” Phil gave Dan a quick hug, knowing he probably needed some comfort, then left to go find Cherry again.

————————————–

Phil hadn’t managed to convince anyone to even consider cancelling the plans. He’d had to restrain himself from shouting at the boss when she was giving her reasons for why they wouldn’t reconsider; they essentially boiled down to the fact that they ‘owned’ Dan and weren’t breaking any laws. Phil wanted to yell at her because they’d stolen Dan, kidnapped him, yet here she was acting like they’d bought him fair and square. He wasn’t even something that could be owned, he was a person. Maybe he had a tail and gills, but he also had feelings and a personality and that was enough for Phil to see him as a person.

So Phil had just stayed quiet and watched as the show tank was constructed and Dan grew more and more miserable. Phil wasn’t allowed to watch when he was having his training, apparently he was too distracting, so he didn’t know what they doing to Dan. Dan assured him that the trainers weren’t ever violent, just patronising. It might have worked with other marine mammals, but Dan didn’t appreciate baby talk and being bribed through a hoop with a piece of fish.

Of course, Dan picked up the routine quickly. All the trainer’s really needed to do was tell him what they wanted him to do, but they were adamant that they were actually teaching Dan to do something, that he wouldn’t do it on command if they didn’t reward him with fish every time. The fact that he remained in stubborn silence just reinforced the idea.

Dan was feeling increasingly trapped, the fact that he was now under the illusion of being trained made him feel as if he was losing his free will. He knew he wasn’t, that he was choosing to do as he was told, but obeying the orders day after day did make him feel pretty unsettled.

But he was behaving himself and, with a few hours a day reserved for ranting at Phil about the latest stupid thing his trainer said, he was coping. Phil had noticed that he seemed to spend more time swimming laps around his tank and sometimes his tail seem twitchier than usual, but Dan had brushed off the concerns. He said he was just a little stressed.

Due to how quickly Dan had learnt the routines, they were able to schedule the first show for just a week after the show tank was completed. Phil recognised the excited buzz as he walked through the main reception on the day of the show; it was the same as it had been six years ago when Dan first arrived. Only this time Phil hated it, wished that he didn’t have to be there to watch as Dan was reduced down to a piece of entertainment, but he’d promised Dan he’d go visit beforehand and then sit in the audience and watch. Seems a need for emotional support wasn’t something that was limited to humans.

“You feeling okay?” Phil asked once he’d opened the tank and started giving Dan his breakfast. He could see that Dan wasn’t okay, that his eyes were practically screaming for help out of this situation, but Dan was being brave and just nodded, “They’re only doing shows on the weekend for now, something about having less shows making it more interesting. Apparently all of them of for the next two months are fully booked. Either way, you’re only going to have to do three shows a week for the foreseeable future, which is good I guess.” Phil knew he was scraping the bottom of the barrel, but he needed something to cheer Dan up.

“I appreciate the effort Phil, but I don’t think anything is going to make me feel better about this,” Dan sighed, chewing dejectedly on his piece of haddock.

“Sorry, I just wish I could make it all okay again,” Phil’s voice was soft and sad, “I’ll be in the crowd though, I’ve got a seat up in the back row by the main entrance. So, if you ever need to, just look up and I’ll be right there.”

“Thanks Phil,” Dan quickly hugged Phil, holding onto him tightly as the door opened behind Phil and the trainers walked in.

Phil ignored them at first, hugging Dan back firmly and whispering some final reassurances into his ear before pulling back and saying goodbye. He shot the trainers a dirty glare as he left the room, they knew he despised what they were doing anyway, and made his way through to the show tank.

Phil had been in there before but it was completely different now that it was filled with a bubbling crowd. The room was centered around the large, open topped tank right in the middle, it’s fully glass walls casting turquoise light down onto the strip of walkway that bordered it. The water in the tank was unnaturally blue and brightly lit, something Phil knew would be a bother to Dan’s more sensitive eyes. There was a small platform for the trainer to stand on and also a small trap door in the bottom of the tank which led to a tunnel connected with Dan’s main tank, meaning they could easily get him from one to another. Dan had not been pleased with the sounds of the power tools when they were building the doorway between his tank and the tunnel.

The show tank was surrounded on all sides with steep stands that were absolutely packed with people, all of them chattering excitedly about the upcoming show. There was even more lighting over the seats and speakers were blasting out elevator-style background music. Phil hoped they were going to turn the volume down when Dan was in, the cheers of the crowd were already going to be tough on his delicate ears, he didn’t need loud music on top of that.

After a few more minutes, the lights suddenly dimmed and the music cut off, being replaced with a smooth voice telling some various folklore about merpeople. It was all very dramatic and theatrical, though it was certainly doing it’s job and riling the crowd up even more.

The voice eventually silenced and the trap door opened, a roar erupting from the crowd as the lights dazzled on their full brightness to accentuate Dan as he emerged and quickly started to swim the perimeter of the tank, increasing his speed with each lap. One of the trainers - the one Dan liked to refer to as ‘an annoying bottom feeder wrapped in a wetsuit’ - had climbed up onto the platform and was describing how Dan was adapted to swim at high speeds. Phil didn’t miss the fear on Dan’s face, the poor boy disoriented and bewildered by the loud shouts and camera flashes, though it appeared that everyone else did.

Phil could barely watch as Dan went through of routine involving flips, hoops, jumping over raised bars and even raising his tail out of the air to ‘wave goodbye’ to the crowd. Dan was being displayed as a mindless animal that was performing just for the bits of shrimp the trainer threw in after each trick. He was so smart and magnificent, yet he was being degraded in such a horrendous way.

Phil didn’t care that he wouldn’t have met Dan, he just wished the poor boy had never been caught by those fishermen in the first place.

—————————————————-

“How was it then?” Phil mum asked wearily as he climbed back into the car. She knew it had been Dan’s first show that day and her feelings were aligned with Phil’s on the whole matter, “Is Dan okay?”

“It was awful mum, they got him to wave at crowd with his tail,” Phil practically spat out the words, disgust heavy in his tone, “And they didn’t turn any of the lights or music down, I could tell it was all too much and I was right in the back row. He’s trying to be brave and all but he was barely speaking afterwards. He didn’t finish his dinner either. I’m really worried about how this will affect him, mum, the captivity alone was enough to stress him out loads and this is a hundred times worse.”

“I can’t believe this is legal,” Phil’s mum tutted, shaking her head as she drove back out onto the main road, “Anyone can see that he’s unhealthy, he should be fully grown but he’s no taller than you, he constantly looks tired and gaunt and he spends hours just swimming in circles or sitting in one place. Now they’re straight up exploiting him and he has no choice but to comply.” Phil’s mum had never been too pleased about Dan being kept in the aquarium, but since Phil had told her of how Dan had really been acquired she was nothing short of outraged.

“I just wish there was something I could do to make it better,” Phil sighed dejectedly, slumping back into his seat.

“Just be there for him, that’ll do a lot more than you’d think,” his mum sent him a weak smile then focused back on the road.

Once home, Phil immediately headed up to his room, flopped down onto his bed and pulled out his laptop. He allowed himself a moment to smile at the memory of when he brought it to work and showed Dan, the then-twelve year old astounded - if a little bewildered - by the videos and pictures that displayed on the screen. Phil had spent a lot of time using his phone or laptop to show Dan all sorts of things, it was a lot easier to pull up a YouTube video on aeroplanes than trying to describe them.

Once he’d finished reminiscing, Phil opened Google and typed in ‘effects of captivity on merpeople’. He knew that the confinement was having a negative effect on Dan, but never really knew the specifics. Dan avoided the topic, knowing there was little point in complaining to Phil when the boy couldn’t do anything to help, but maybe there was some proper information online.

Phil was immediately surprised by how many results came up; though it was increasingly commonplace, there still wasn’t a large number of merpeople in captivity so Phil hadn’t expected there to be much research done into to topic. Apparently though, it was a popular topic for animal rights organisations and they were amassing as much information they could to make their arguments as credible as possible.

Phil skipped over the sensationalised PETA pages, knowing that they were far from reliable, and ended up on the Animal Aid website. They were UK based and had a whole section dedicated to captive merpeople and detailed articles on the subject, there were even pictures of Dan on there.

Phil found himself feeling more and more horrified as he read through the information on screen. He hadn’t realised just how badly Dan’s health and general well being was at risk. There was evidence that being separated from the naturally complex social structures of a pod and put into isolation could lead to what was essentially insanity. The ones not living solitarily weren’t much better off, being confined to a tank with a non-familial merperson resulted in a lot of aggression and violence.

Dan’s stunted growth wasn’t uncommon either, it seemed that every single merperson who entered captivity before they were fully grown did not reach what was considered to be a normal length. He was also at an increased risk of infection due the lack of exposure to natural bacteria and there were a lot of suggestions that the diet given to captive merpeople was not sufficient to meet their nutritional needs. Dan had mentioned that he ate things other than fish in the wild, such as seaweed, crustaceans and even some types of rock, and it would explain the way Dan was much slimmer than merpeople in the wild. Phil had always assumed that was due to him not building so much muscle as those that hunted every day, but maybe it was just down to pure lack of nutrition.

There was a long list of unnatural behaviours observed in captive merpeople and, reading down it, Phil was concerned by just how many matched the way Dan acted. The repetitive swimming in circles, long periods of restlessness without sleeping, jerky tail movements when swimming and so many more. The website also condemned the lack of effort put into replicating the natural environment of merpeople, stating that it was a downright lie that they couldn’t learn to hunt live food and that the tanks they were kept in were both too small and a far cry from the rocks in which they made their homes. Dan had explained to Phil that, in the wild, each family in the pod lived in a large cave that was carved out of the rocks and had only a small entrance to ensure security. It was why he always tried to worm into the crevices of the artificial rock formations in his tank to rest; he instinctively felt exposed and vulnerable when sleeping in what his body perceived to be open ocean.

One article even listed self destruction as a common, stress induced act that resulted from extended confinement and Phil just prayed that Dan wouldn’t reach that point.

The worst thing on the site by far, was the article on how the high stress levels, lack of socialisation and health issues drastically reduced lifespan. Few merpeople had been kept for a full lifespan, that being just a little shorter than humans, and those that reached the expected age had been taken into captivity later in their lives. No merperson had lasted more than thirty years in captivity, with those being taken in before reaching adulthood generally dying even sooner.

That would mean Dan could be dead before he reached twenty five.

Phil closed the browser and put his laptop down on the floor, feeling too nauseous to continue. Dan was already suffering from the effects of being kept in confinement and it looked like it would just continue to get worse until he reached a premature death.

Phil lay on his bed in silence for a few minutes until he heard his mum calling him for dinner. He blundered his way downstairs and slumped down into a chair at the kitchen table. “You okay Phil?” His mum asked as she placed a bowl of stir fry in front of him and took her own seat, “You look really peeky.”

“I was-uh-I was looking at a website about merpeople in captivity,” Phil mumbled, still looking pretty shell shocked over his discoveries, “It said there’s never been one that lived more than thirty years. It said that one’s taken as young as Dan rarely get past twenty five. I-We can’t just let them do that to him, there must be something we can do to stop it.”

“I know sweetie, captivity is never good for something as intelligent as merpeople,” Phil’s mum punctuated her sentence by angrily spearing a piece of chicken with her fork, “But there’s nothing we can do. There’s still so little known about their natural conditions that it’s impossible to create regulations on how they need to be kept in captivity. Apparently the fact that they’re all unhealthy isn’t enough to get a law passed. And we can’t accuse them of breaching the Animal Welfare Act because they ‘aren’t knowingly causing harm’ since they’re acting on the best knowledge we have. Personally, I would say that not knowing how to keep something alive is a pretty good reason to not take it into captivity in the first place, but they’ll never release him on their own. He brings them in way too much money and press.”

“So there’s really nothing we can do, nothing at all?” Phil groaned, running a hand through his hair and staring glumly down at his plate. He really didn’t have any appetite left, “That’s disgusting how they can get away with damaging Dan in that way. And I can’t even speak up about it because I’ll get fired and then Dan will lose me too; I don’t think he’ll be able to handle losing me.”

“I think the best thing we can do is just work on raising awareness of the issues, educate people on how harmful it is for the merpeople,” Phil’s mum reached over the table and placed a hand on his arm, “And you’re already doing so much for Dan just by being there for him. You’re giving him a friend, someone he can speak to and get his stresses of his chest. Just having someone to treat him like more than an animal for a few hours a day will really help the psychological side at least. You’re doing great Phil, Dan is lucky to have you.”

That night, as Phil lay on his bed looking up at the photos of he and Dan that he’d plastered across the wall, smiling at the adorably fascinated expressions Dan was pulling in response to the camera flash, he tried to think of more things he could do to help keep Dan relaxed and healthy. After planning to go into town and find some seaweed and other supplements for Dan’s diet, Phil switched his light off and settled down to sleep, his dreams filled with silvery scales and deep brown eyes.

————————————————-

_18 years old_

“So, you’re considered an adult when you’re eighteen? What changes then to make you an adult? You don’t seem any different than you were last week?” Dan was flopped over the tank edge, casually picking at the box of seaweed Phil was holding out for him. Dan wasn’t a massive fan of the dried stuff, apparently it wasn’t as chewy as when it was fresh, but it was all Phil could get in the centre of London and it was a nice break from the monotonous diet of fish.

The aquarium was closed for the day because a few of the really big tanks needed a thorough cleaning, so there were no visitors and Dan and Phil were allowed to just relax and spend the day together. It was nice to have a chilled out day, no shows or training or other responsibilities, just talking and enjoying the other’s company.

“Nothing changes, it’s just the age where humans are considered adults,” Phil shrugged, chewing on the chocolate bar he’d picked up from the aquarium shop before his shift had started. They’d found out the hard way that Dan’s body didn’t agree with chocolate. After Dan spent three days being sick and therefore unable to perform, Phil had been scolded and now he had to clear any food not supplied by the aquarium with the vet before letting Dan consume it.

“Why eighteen then? What’s so special about eighteen?”

“Well, it’s after eighteen when people tend to go off to university and live on our own,” Phil said thoughtfully, not having really considered the question before. He often found himself analysing things he’d never even thought of before as he tried to explain human customs and traditions to Dan, “So I guess it kind of makes sense for us to be seen as adults then.”

“Wait, are you going to be moving away?” Dan suddenly sounded very worried, straightening his arms to push himself upright.

“No no, I’m going to uni but I’m staying in London,” Phil reassured, placing a hand on Dan’s damp arm, “I’m actually going to be living closer to the aquarium so it’ll be even harder to get rid of me. Plus, since I’m doing marine biology, I can say that I’m actually studying just by visiting yo- Hey, you okay?”

Dan had lowered his head dejectedly, one of his webbed fingers playing with the padlock that was hanging loosely from the hinge beside him. “Yeah yeah, I’m fine,” he muttered, “Just thinking.”

“Thinking about what?” Phil’s eyebrows furrowed and his mouth set into a frown, “Tell me Dan, it’s obviously making you feel upset.”

“It’s just…” Dan sighed heavily and looked up to meet Phil’s eyes , tear welling up on his lower lids, “You’re going to leave someday. Maybe you aren’t moving away this year, but eventually you’ll finish your university and start working in a proper place and you won’t have time to visit so much. Then you’ll find someone you want to marry and give them one of those silly rings and you’ll move away or forget all about me and I’ll just be stuck in this tank, watching as you grow up and leave me behind.”

“Woah, where’s all this coming from?“ Phil’s eyes widened as he watched those thick, viscous tears start slowly slipping down Dan’s cheeks. He’d seen the other boy cry quite a few times, but it had mostly been out of longing or frustration. These were tears of pure sadness, something Phil hadn’t seen since Dan was a lot younger and still coming to terms with his captivity, “Firstly, I’ll be at university for the next three years, so I’ll definitely be around then. After that, I’m hopefully going to be working with the university on researching merpeople. I might go away every now and then on research trips to the ocean, but I’ll be based in the university right here in London. I’m not going anywhere Dan; you’re my best friend and I care about you so much, I’m not going to just abandon you here.”

“You-You really promise that?” Dan hiccuped, clumsily smearing the gel-like tears across his cheeks, “Do you really care about me that much?”

“Of course I do Dan,” Phil thought he maybe cared about Dan a little too much, but admitting it would just complicate things unnecessarily.

“Thank you,” Dan murmured, tugging Phil closer and hugging him warmly, just wanting to be closer to the other boy, “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell you how grateful I am for all you’ve done for me.”

“It’s been my pleasure, it really has,” Phil smiled and hugged Dan back, his hand gently touching the wet hair at the nape of Dan’s neck. Dan’s hair didn’t seem to grow as quickly as human hair, but Phil still needed to trim it every now and then for him. Dan said that in the ocean they had knives made from razor clam shells that were used for all sorts of things (including hair cuts) but Phil had to make do with a pair of scissors he’d bought in Asda, “You’re way cooler than all the other kids at school.”

“Shut up,” Dan giggled, subconsciously giving Phil a little squeeze before unwrapping his arms and pulling away, still keeping his body slightly closer than he usually would, “You hang around with me because of my dazzling good looks and radiant personality and you know it.”

“‘Course,” Phil smiled, ruffling Dan’s hair playfully and laughing at Dan’s disgruntled pout, “I’m not here for the fishy stink or the salt water shower every day when you come to the surface.”

“I think you secretly like it,” Dan stuck his tongue out at Phil, though his grin slowly faded into a more serious expression, “Honestly though, why _do_ you like being with me so much? I know you were pretty much obsessed with merpeople to start with, but why have you stuck around so much?”

“Because you’re a really nice person and I like you,” Phil said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, which it was to him, “It was never really about the fact you were a merman; I got the opportunity to meet you that first time because of it, yeah, but after that I was more interested in just speaking to you and getting to know you. Not getting to know about you being a merperson, but just getting to know you as…well, a person. You’re kind and funny and pretty and-uh-I mean-I just really like spending time with you.”

“You think I’m pretty?” Dan smirked as Phil blushed and stuttered, his tail fins waving back and forth slightly where they were poking out of the water. They’d gotten longer as he matured and now they flowed  gracefully behind him like semi-translucent silk ribbons as he swam.

“I-um-yeah, I kinda do.”

“Well, I think you’re very pretty too, even with your lanky legs and gross feet.”

Phil looked up, not being able to tell from his tone whether Dan was joking or not. He was met with a pair of smoldering, dark eyes and soft lips pressing against his own. Since he’d been out in the air for a while, Dan’s lips were pretty much dry but his skin was still silky, smooth and slightly salty. Phil surprised himself by how easily he started kissing back, quickly throwing away all his inhibitions about taking things too far for Dan’s comfort. Dan was making it clear that he had feelings for Phil, feelings that were strong enough for him to want to act on.

They kissed for a short while, slowly and reluctantly pulling back. Phil’s hand remained where it had travelled up to Dan’s waist, right where his skin started being replaced with silvery scales. “Your lips feel really nice,” Phil murmured, a little awestruck that a magnificent creature such as Dan wanted to kiss plain old him.

“Well, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to feel them again,” Dan’s eyes twinkled playfully before he quickly dived underwater, making sure to swing his tail and send a generous splash of water in Phil’s direction.

“ _Da-an_ ,” Phil whined and shook his head, wiping the water off his face and throwing the seaweed box in Dan’s direction.

The smile didn’t leave his face for the rest of the day.

—————————————–

“You look like shit,” Dan sniggered once Phil had opened his tank with a groan, the loud clank of the metal like a dagger through his sore head.

“Shut up, you don’t understand the pain of a hangover,” Phil scowled and gave Dan a light shove, just eliciting more laughter from the other. Phil had got his A Level results the previous day and, after finding out he’d be studying Marine Biology at King’s College London, Phil and his friends had all proceeded to get very drunk and stay up very late celebrating. Phil had explained what a hangover was after he returned from the sick day that had followed his eighteenth birthday and Dan had found it hilarious. He called human’s silly for drinking things that made them ill then spent the rest of the day asking Phil questions about what it was like to be drunk. Apparently there was a type of coral that induced a similar feeling in merpeople, but Dan had only ever tried a small bite before his mother had caught him and made him stay in their cave for a whole season.

“I think you’re dramatic enough about it all for me to get an idea,” Dan smirked, taking his breakfast box from Phil and starting to work his way through it. Phil had spent the last few months researching more and more into the crustaceans and plants and rocks that Dan ate in the wild, so Dan’s meals had become much more interesting over time.

It gave Dan something nice to look forward to, but Dan’s life was a dark and dismal place even with the short periods of light. He’d stopped growing now, a good half foot shorter than he should be even if he was a little taller than Phil at full stretch, and he the stress of performing was taking a heavy toll. Dan was thin, very thin, his ribs and spine quite visible when he stretched or bent over. The purplish bags were now a permanent feature under the dulled brown of his eyes, his skin had taken on a more greyish tinge and - much to Phil’s horror - some of his scales had begun to flake away. Phil had immediately called for the vet but, after finding no other health concerns, she’s concluded it was simply stress and told Dan to try and rest more. Phil had bitten his tongue to stop himself rudely suggesting that they stop making him go through six shows a week. No one cared about Dan’s health, so long as he could perform and make them money his welfare was irrelevant.

The hype around Dan was gradually ebbing away once again, so he was being made to perform more and with increasing dangerous tricks to try and drum up some more business. Phil was slightly worried about how far they were willing to go, but Dan insisted that they weren’t getting him to do anything too extreme. Phil didn’t agree, he thought using a flaming hoop would certainly be classed as extreme, but he trusted Dan to be able to judge the situation appropriately.

“You’re the one who sulked for a week when you got that flu thing,” Phil retorted, thinking back. Dan had got what seemed to be the merperson equivalent to a cold when he was fifteen, giving him clogged gills and a thick head. He’d been miserable and grumpy for the entire illness; his week-long pout had been something Phil had been teasing him for ever since.

“That’s because I was seriously ill,” Dan scoffed around a mouthful of seaweed, the thin green strands sticking out of his mouth at various angles, “My gills were all stuffed up, I could’ve suffocated!”

“No you couldn’t, you were coughing loads and demanding I help you clean them out all the time,” Phil rolled his eyes.

Not having a rebuttal, Dan decided to shut Phil up by pressing their lips together. They’d never made their relationship ‘offical’ per se since it would be far too complicated, but they regularly kissed and hugged and acting very affectionately. Neither cared about the ambiguity of the label (though Dan was particularly fond of calling Phil a fish fetishist), they just enjoyed the closeness and warmth brought about the other.

“You taste gross and salty,” Phil jovially grimaced as he pulled back, his hand now resting on Dan’s smooth arm to keep him closer, “Now finish your breakfast, you have a show soon.”

“Yes mum,” Dan grumbled lightly, kissing Phil once more before returning to his box of food.

Soon enough, Dan had been taken into the show tank to train and Phil left to attend to some of his other duties. He returned to Dan’s room half an hour before Dan was due back, planning on sorting out the next week’s meals.

His plans were dashed as soon as he walked through the door, seeing a disgruntled Dan floating upside to hold his tail out of the water while the vet leant over it. Phil caught a glimpse of a large, angry red streak that slashed through the silvery-purple scales midway down his tail and ran over straight away.

“What happened?” He demanded, feeling his stomach roll as he got a closer look at the deep wound and the drops of slightly translucent blood that were running across Dan’s scales. Phil had never seen a merperson’s blood before.

“He had a bit of a slip when he was going through the fire hoop, caught his tail on it a little.”

“A little?! That cut is the length of my arm!” Phil gasped, glancing down and seeing the pain pinching Dan’s face.

“It’s not too serious though,” the vet explained calmly, not even looking at Phil as he worked on cleaning out Dan’s injury, “The heat cauterised some of the wound so it won’t bleed too much. He’ll be okay.”

“So it’s a burn? Oh my…”

Dan let out a sudden, loud whistle and knocked on the glass, his tail jerking away from the vet and a very unhappy expression covering his face. The vet apologized absent-mindedly and continued checking over the wound. She couldn’t dress it or anything since the bandage would just fall off straight away in the water so, once she’d made sure it was clean, she let Dan’s tail fall and left the room, letting them know she’d be back later.

Once they were alone, Dan turned himself upright and surfaced, shaking his hair from his face and pulling Phil over for a much needed hug. Phil hadn’t missed the way Dan’s tail moved stiffly, the long laceration meaning the graceful up and down motion he usually swam with impossible.

“Oh Dan, are you okay?” Phil whispered, kissing Dan’s salty hair and stroking his back lovingly, “It looks like it hurts so much.”

“It-It does hurt a lot,” Dan sniffled and Phil felt some of those thick tears fall onto his shirt, “But it’s not really bad. I’m just…I’m more upset with how people reacted. Everyone just watched and some people were filming it but no one helped. They just opened the hatch and the trainer ushered me into it. I was really scared and no one cared.”

“I care,” Phil murmured, not really knowing how to comfort Dan other than remind him he was always going to be there for him. The same as it always was.

“I know you do,” Dan’s voice was quiet and he fell silent for a few minutes, just soaking up the comfort from Phil’s embrace. Eventually, he spoke up again, “I love you.”

Phil hesitated, stunned that Dan was admitting to such deep feelings. Sure, he felt the same way, but Phil had always been one to fall too hard for people and had never had someone reciprocate those feelings. “I love you too,” he replied, softly and tenderly as he pulled back from the hug a little and pressed their lips together, “I really love you.”

———————————————–

It was inevitable that something would go seriously wrong at some point. Dan had been mistreated for many years and endlessly made to feel helpless, humiliated and objectified. It would all get too much eventually and he would snap.

Phil had always hoped that the snap would be when they were alone in the back room, where he could give Dan the attention he needed and help him calm down in his own time and in safety.

But it didn’t, it happened in the middle of one of Dan’s shows with an almost full auditorium watching.

Despite the injury to his tail, Dan had been made to continue performing in just as many shows as before. He couldn’t swim properly but he still had to jump and flip as usual. Phil kept track of the various websites that campaigned against mermaid captivity and had noticed the tidal wave of videos and pictures showing Dan’s injury and how it hindered his swimming. Still, nothing changed and no one other than a few people on the internet even seemed to care.

The injury seemed to have been the last straw for Dan, but he managed to contain his emotions for a short while afterwards. A few escaped, he snapped at Phil a couple of times for menial things and his trainer commented on him being ‘even moodier than usual’. But he kept them bottled up until he just couldn’t anymore.

Phil was waiting in Dan’s room for his show to end, wiping down the surfaces of the counter, when the trap door suddenly slammed open and Dan burst into the tank. He swam straight over to the opening and slammed his whole body against it frantically, over and over again until Phil got it open.

“I didn’t mean to! I swear I didn’t mean to!” Dan cried as he practically launched himself out of the water to hug Phil, a good foot of his tail rising over the surface. His whole body was trembling and he was gasping along with his sobs, thick tears running in streams down his angular face.

“Hey hey hey, what’s happened?” Phil asked as calmly as he could when he had a near hysterical merman clinging to him.

Before Dan could answer, the door to the back room swung open forcefully and a group of trainers poured into the room. Phil had no idea what was going on and could feel the panic rising in his throat, but pushed it down. Dan had done something, something bad, and Phil needed to stay calm and sort it out.

“Phil, you need to step back from him,” one of the trainers - who Phil had never learnt the name of - said sternly, “You’re not safe.”

“Not safe? Dan isn’t going to hurt me. What’re you on about?” Phil’s eyebrows knitted together, his arms instinctively tightening around Dan’s shuddering body, “What the hell’s happened?”

“I-I hit the trainer, with my tail,” Dan admitted, nuzzling his face into the crook of Phil’s neck shamefully, “I just-she was annoyed because I messed up the double flip and I-I just got angry and when she stepped close to the edge of the platform I c-couldn’t help myself and I h-hit her legs with my tail. I think I broke her leg.”

Phil couldn’t speak for a moment, stunned that Dan had actually done that. He’d purposefully hurt someone, badly by the sounds of it. It was easy to see how strong Dan’s tail was, it was essentially solid muscle covered in a slightly ostentatious set of scales; he could do some serious damage with it if he wanted to.

But Phil had to remind himself of why this had happened, how Dan had been pushed to his very limits by these people and treated so abhorrently. Phil had predicted Dan would end up having an emotional breakdown but an angry outburst was actually more understandable. Dan had always harboured a certain amount of anger towards the workers at the aquarium, he’d just stopped displaying it so much when it became clear that it really wasn’t worth it.

“O-Okay, just calm down Dan,” Phil whispered, his voice wavering slightly, “We’ll sort this out, just calm down.”

“Phil, you really do need to step back,” the trainer interrupted, “We have to treat this as a serious incident and Dan can’t be considered safe. We need you to step back.”

“He’s not dangerous,” Phil snapped, not loosening his hold on his friend, “He’s just worked up. He’d never hurt me so just leave us alone.”

“Phil-”

“Leave. Or at least be quiet and let me handle this, I know Dan better than any of you,” Phil waited until the trainers reluctantly slunk into the corner of the room, keeping an eye on the boys but not getting involved then turned his focus back to Dan, “You’re okay Dan, you’re safe and I’m here. Just calm down.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt her, I swear.”

“I know you didn’t Dan,” Phil cooed, one of his hand gently toying with the hair at the nape of Dan’s neck, “I know you wouldn’t hurt someone on purpose. You’re very stressed and this sort of outburst was inevitable. You’re not at fault.”

It took a little while, but Dan’s sobs eventually dissipated to small sniffles and hiccups. “Wh-What’s going to happen now?” He asked quietly, his voice a little rough from all the sobbing, “Am I going to be in trouble?”

“I…I don’t know Dan,” Phil bit his lip and looked questioningly over to the trainers, getting a shrug in response, “I guess we’ll just have to play it by ear and hope for the best.”

“I’m sorry,” Dan whispered again, nuzzling into Phil’s embrace with a sigh and closing his eyes.

————————————————

“We have some wonderful news everyone!” The voice blared over the tannoy, cheery and bright, as Phil was transferring some seahorses back into the tank he’d just cleaned, “We have finally located a safe area to release our resident merman, Dan, back into the wild! A pod living in the Irish sea is willing to accept him into their group and help him adapt to life in the wild again. We’ll be taking him to his new home in a months time, so make sure to get in any last visits you want before he’s gone!”

Phil refrained from dropping the seahorses, but he was much less careful than he’d usually be when moving the delicate little creatures and was sprinting to Dan’s room in no time. Dan had obviously heard the announcement and was waiting right next to the lid, clicking and whistled at an incredible speed as he grinned madly.

“I’m going back to the ocean!” He squealed in delight as he erupted from the water, hugging Phil tightly and slamming their lips together.

Phil giggled into the kiss then pulled back, cupping Dan’s face gently and mirroring the delighted expression there, “You’re going home, you might even be able to find your family again. Oh, this is amazing!”

“I’m going home,” Dan’s smile could have lit up the room, though there was a slight undertone of uncertainty in his eyes, “You’ll come and see me, won’t you? I can help you with your research and stuff. Maybe I could get them to put one of those tracker things on my tail so you can find me.”

“Of course I’ll keep coming to see you,” Phil was surprised Dan had even needed to ask, “I love you. I’m not going to lose you just because you have your fishy friends back.”

“Shut up,” Dan sniggered and rolled his eyes, kissing Phil again briefly, “Will you come with them when they release me? I want you to be there.”

“Sure, I’ll probably have to ask the boss but I don’t see why I wouldn’t be allowed,” Phil shrugged, “Shall I go ask about it now? Before we get in trouble for keeping you from the guests?”

Dan agreed and kissed Phil one more time before diving back into the water and swimming smoothly over to the glass on the visitor side. His tail had mostly healed now, definitely helped by the fact all of his shows had been cancelled since the incident with the trainer. Surprisingly, Dan didn’t seemed to have faced any retribution for what he did, other than having his behaviour assessed by the vet. He was deemed stable, but the negative press that surrounded the incident was enough to make the aquarium hesitant about restarting the shows.

Phil headed to the upper floors of the aquarium where only employees were granted access, following his vague memories of the route to the boss’ office from his interview all those years ago.

After taking a more than a few wrong turns in the winding corridors, Phil found the correct door and walked right up to it without thinking. He was about to open it when he heard deep voices from the other side. He would normally have just stepped back and waited patiently, but he could’ve sworn that one of those voices had said Dan’s name. He considered for a moment before holding his ear against the wood, just about able to make out what the people inside were saying.

“…second half of the payment will be transferred once we get him delivered,” a voice with a slight, indistinguishable accent said, “And you’ve organised all of the transportation to my home?”

“Of course, you’re certainly paying enough to have all shipping expenses included,” that was the voice of the aquarium’s boss. What the hell were they talking about? Was this guy the owner of another aquarium buying animals? “We’ll have him shipped over to Dubai in one month; that gives us plenty of time to get things finalised. You’ve got everything prepared on your end, yes?”

“I do, the tank will be filled a couple of days before his arrival and I have employed two people to be in charge of his care,” the man was speaking again now, sounding very pleased with himself, “The opportunity to buy a merman, let alone one as pretty as yours, is much too scarce to ruin with ill planning. You get him to my house and I’ll take care of the rest.”

Phil stumbled away from the door, bile rising up in his throat. He should’ve expected this; the people here had never cared about Dan’s welfare, why would they suddenly want to go through all the effort of releasing him into the wild? No, they were going to sell him to some random guy and ship him halfway across the world to live in a tank that was probably even less suitable than his current one in this man’s home. At best he’d be some sort of exotic ‘pet’, at worst he’d just be part of the decoration. Phil didn’t think things could be worse than they were in the aquarium, but he’d most certainly be wrong.

Not quite being able to keep himself calm, Phil blundered his way back down to the staff room, relieved to find that Cherry was in there drinking a cup of tea.

“Whoa Phil, are you okay? You look really pale and-”

“We need to get Dan out of here,” Phil didn’t care about being rude and interrupting, he needed to know that there was a way to get Dan out of this awful situation, “They-Oh my god they’re lying again. They aren’t releasing him, they’re selling him to some guy in Dubai. We need to get him out before-before they take him away.”

“What? You can’t be serious,” Cherry gasped, her eyes widening in horror as she realised Phil wasn’t joking, “That-That’s disgusting. I knew they didn’t care about him at all but this is just…they’re acting as if he’s just a pet! Right, you leave things to me, I’ll sort this out. Don’t tell Dan anything about this, we need to keep anyone from finding out that we know and the CCTV in his room is too heavy. I’ll phone you later, I think I know what we can do to stop this.”

Phil nodded and quickly hugged Cherry, murmuring a thank you before plastering on his most convincing smile and going back into Dan.

——————————————————-

“Okay, Michael’s going to text me once he has the camera’s turned off,” Cherry explained to the small group of keepers who were gathered around her, “Then Phil’s going to go in and talk to Dan while we all get the transport tank ready. Next, we’ll get Dan into it, onto the truck and we should be all clear to drive to the coast. We’ll have half an hour before the cameras reset so we have enough time, but we can’t take too long. Everyone got it?”

Phil nodded, swallowing thickly in apprehension. What they were doing was incredibly illegal, he’d be in huge trouble if they were caught and would probably end up in jail. Granted, what the aquarium was planning to do to Dan was just as bad, but Phil was pretty certain in the knowledge that they’d be able to get themselves out of it.

Luckily, despite the risks, enough of the aquarium staff were disgusted by the plans to help with Cherry’s plan to break Dan out. They had a small team of seven people including Michael, the tour guide from Phil’s school trip all those years ago. He had always disagreed with Dan’s captivity and was more than willing to use his knowledge of the building’s security system to eliminate the threat of security cameras catching their identities.

After a few minutes of tense waiting and nervously shuffling back and forth, Cherry’s phone chimed to let them know it was safe to enter. She quickly went over the plan again before they headed inside, Phil splitting away from the group once they’d made it through the entrance hall; they were all needed to carry the heavy transport tank from the storeroom to Dan.

Phil tried to be as quiet as possible as he walked through the narrow corridor to Dan’s room, not wanting to spook the other boy by being too noisy. Evidently he failed, as a sleepy Dan was already up and watching the door cautiously, his tense shoulders relaxing when he saw it was just Phil.

Dan clicked questioningly as Phil unlocked and opened the tank, taking a deep breath before lifting the lid; if Michael hadn’t been thorough enough then an alarm would begin blaring in a matter of seconds. Thankfully, the only sound that joined the creaking tank lid was Dan splashing through the surface and demanding Phil explain why he needed to disturb his sleep.

Phil placed a hand on Dan’s cold arm to comfort him as he gently explained the situation, constantly reassuring him that they were getting him out and keeping him safe, that he wouldn’t have to be reduced to a rare, exotic pet.

Dan was trembling slightly in shock, but he wasn’t scared. He trusted Phil completely to fulfil his promise, though he didn’t realise how immediately that would happen. He’d pulled Phil in for a tight hug and a sweet kiss not a moment after he’d finished speaking and was still holding him tightly when the other workers banged into the room noisily with a large transport tank. Dan would still have to curl up slightly due to his length, but the depth and width were both more than enough to keep him comfortable.

“Oh-Oh you’re ready to do it now?” Dan looked like he didn’t quite know how to react, his emotions having been sent on a rollercoaster without any warning that night, “Are you taking me-Phil am I going to go home tonight?”

Phil nodded and a smile slowly grew on his face to mirror Dan’s, Cherry watching fondly as she and the others began filling the tank with water. Dan suddenly seemed to realise what this all meant and he squealed happily then threw his arms around Phil again, his joy overflowing.

He was going home, he was going back to the ocean and could find his family and he would able to see the northern home in the summer and see his parents and brother again and _he was going home._

“Thank you thank you thank you,” he whispered as he clung to Phil, his nails digging into Phil’s shoulders a little through his shirt, “Thank you, I love you.”

“I haven’t even done anything yet Dan,” Phil chuckled fondly, kissing the side of Dan’s wet, salty hair, “Besides, it’s Cherry you should be thanking, she got all this organised.”

“Thank you Cherry,” Dan mumbled, not as enthusiastic but still very grateful. Dan hadn’t ever been able to truly get over his original mistrust of the other employees, though he was definitely more tolerant of them since his hatred had migrated to the trainers.

“It’s my pleasure Dan, it’s great to finally be able to do something to help you,” Cherry smiled, standing up from where she’d been knelt by the transport tank, “This tank is ready to go now, you alright for us to carry you to it?”

Dan hesitated, weighing up whether it would hurt more to try and tip himself into the tank than it would damage his pride being manhandled into it. He didn’t have any dignity left anyway and he wasn’t really in the mood to gather more bruises, so he nodded and agreed.

Dan might’ve been considerably smaller than the average merperson his age, but Phil had seriously underestimated how heavy he would be. Dan’s skin had a thick layer of high density blubber under the rubbery surface and his tail was pretty much pure muscle, so naturally he weighed a lot more than a human of the same size. It took four out of the seven of them to lift Dan out of the water and carry him to the new tank, even then they were all huffing from the exertion. Luckily, they’d put the tank onto a rolling trolley before filling it with water so it wasn’t so much of a trouble to push the tank out to the carpark and roll the trolley up into the back of a nondescript white van.

Phil stayed close to the tank the whole time, carefully lifting the metal lid off once they were safely in the van and taking Dan’s hand in his. Dan had been getting noticeably antsy when he was shut in the small tank, the cramped space and movements reminiscent of the box he was thrown into after his capture all those years ago. It was rather fitting that he was making the journey back in a similar container, though this was one was clear and light and parked next to a person he love dearly.

Dan stayed submerged until the van began moving and everything had quietened down, the water softening the harsh bangs and noises of car doors on his sensitive ears. Cherry and Michael were in the front, Phil was in the back and the rest of the group were sharing cars for the drive. Everyone knew Dan would prefer to be alone with Phil.

Once he was certain things were quiet again, Dan lifted his head out of the water. He was sat up, his back against one side of the tank and one of his arms hanging over the side so he could keep hold of Phil’s hand.

“You okay there? We have a long drive ahead of us, three hours I think, so just tell me if you need anything,” Phil said gently, recognising the expression on Dan’s face and knowing that it meant he was getting overwhelmed, “We have some food for you and you can have a sleep too, I’ll be right here the whole time.”

Dan nodded along and was quiet for another quarter of an hour, thinking everything over and organising his thoughts. “I’m finally going home Phil,” he whispered suddenly, startling Phil a little though he was smiling soon enough, “It’s been almost nine years and now I’m finally going home. I’ll see my family again, my mum and dad and Ben-Oh, Ben will be thirteen. He was just a toddler when I last saw him.”

“It’ll be a big change,” Phil nodded, carefully studying Dan’s angular face and impossible eyes as he tried to gauge how he was really feeling, “But they’ll all be so happy to see you again. You’ll be able to find them alright, won’t you?”

“Oh yeah, that’ll be easy. I dunno exactly what it is but we have some kind of internal tracking system to help us find our home. My pod won’t ever move away from the area and I’m biologically attached to it, I’ll be able to find them again,” Dan wasn’t looking at Phil, he was staring down at the large, pinkish scar on his tail; it was a forearm length of fleshy blubber, no scales able to grow and cover up the harsh reminder of his old life, “That isn’t what I’m worried about though?”

“What are you worried about then, Dan?” Phil asked gently, “You can tell me anything and we’ll try sort it out. We want to make all this as safe as possible for you.”

“It’s not me,” Dan glanced up for a second before lowering his gaze again, “How am I ever going to see you again? You don’t know the pod waters and, besides, you won’t even be close because you’ll be studying in London. I really do want to go home, but the thought of losing you makes all of it seem… a bit pointless.”

“It’s not pointless to get you back where you belong Dan, you should’ve never been put in the circumstances where you met me,” Phil ran a hand through his hair then carefully held Dan’s chin, tilting his head up to look at him properly, “I know it’s a little selfish, but I don’t want to lose you either. So feel free to say no, but I brought one of the tracking devices from the university. I might not be able to visit every day, but if you wear it then I’ll be able to find you anywhere in the world. Like I said, you can say no, I wouldn’t be surprised if you never want to even think about a human ever again but the offer’s there.”

Dan didn’t even need to think before he was nodding, “Of course I’ll have it. I may have changed my opinion on humans rather drastically, but you’re still my best friend and I still love you. I’m not losing you just because you can’t find me. Besides, you still need to give me an explanation of that Christmas stuff that actually makes sense.”

“I still don’t understand what’s confusing you,” Phil smirked, happy to get back to a lighter conversation topic. He still found it entertaining to hear Dan’s reactions to human culture, “It’s just a holiday where we give gifts and do stuff as a family, it’s not very complicated.”

“Yeah, but you put trees in your home and lie to children about some guy breaking into your house!” Dan shook his head and stuck his tongue out at Phil, “You’re all so weird.”

“Yeah but you love me, so it’s endearing,” Phil said smugly, making Dan roll his eyes.

“Sure it is,” Dan muttered facetiously, though his fond smile showed just how much he did find Phil adorable. His smile was interrupted by a huge yawn, clearly displaying his rows of sharp teeth and slightly purple tongue.

“Why don’t you settle back down and have a sleep,” Phil suggested gently, “We’re driving all the way to Norfolk so there’s a good three hours left to go and you’ll probably have a lot of swimming to do tomorrow. You’ll need your rest.”

Dan looked reluctant, but nodded. “Make sure you wake me up a little while before we arrive so we can talk a bit more,” he ordered, kissing Phil sweetly before settling back down and curling up to sleep.

Phil smiled softly and lay himself down on the floor beside Dan’s tank, being awake at 2am finally catching up with him and dragging him down into slumber.

—————————————–

“One, two, three, lift!”

Everyone groaned slightly as they straightened their legs, lifting Dan and the tank off the trolley. They were releasing Dan from a secluded beach so there would be no chance of anyone seeing them, but it also meant they had to transport Dan over terrain too rough for the trolley.

Dan was trying to keep as still as he could, but he couldn’t stop himself reacting to the jolts that occurred with every step taken. The water inside the tank was sloshing from side to side, taking Dan with it and making it even harder for the people carrying him.

Eventually, after a lot of staggering and cursing, Dan’s tank was placed down onto the sand. The waves lapped against the glass and Dan used his tail to push the lid up, springing up the moment it had slipped down onto the sand.

The smile on Dan’s face was dazzling, the moon reflecting off his sharp teeth and turning them into a string of sparkling fairy lights. Dan’s nostrils flared as he took a deep breath of the fresh sea air; there was nothing that could compare to it, nothing that could replicate the brisk, saltiness of the wild ocean. It may have been over eight years since Dan had smelt it, but he would recognise that smell anywhere. The smell of home.

Phil felt warmth spreading out from his chest as he watched the expression on Dan’s face, a pure, unhindered elation that he’d never before seen on the boy. Happiness had always been tinged with misery for him, nothing ever enough to completely forget about his situation, not until now.

Seeing that Dan was already trying to push himself out of the tank, Phil quickly slipped his shoes and socks off and stepped into the icy surf. The others hung back while Phil hauled Dan out, tipping the tank as best he could until Dan fell out and into the small waves, the metal tracking device strapped to his tail clanking loudly in the serene night air.

Dan let out a delighted squeal, a wordless expression of joy, as he rolled over in the water and splashed his tail up and down. The raw, natural ocean felt like heaven after hours being cramped into the stagnant water of the transport tank and years of being in the carefully  controlled environment the aquarium provided for him.

“Feel good?” Phil asked with a light chuckle, not caring about the biting cold of the water as he knelt beside Dan.

“It feels _incredible_ ,” Dan beamed, flicking his tail up to splash water across the entire length of his body, “I forgot how fucking good the ocean felt. I can’t wait to actually get swimming in it again.”

“Go ahead then,” Phil urged, trying to hide his sadness as best he could. Of course he was upset about parting with Dan, having to go from seeing him every day to at undetermined intervals was going to be tough, but that was just his selfish side; he’d push it aside in an instant to see Dan this happy, “You’re free now Dan, you can go and swim as far as you want and wherever you want.”

Dan glanced out to the horizon, the ocean spreading out endlessly in front of him, just waiting for him. His tail twitched, he was clearly itching to go, but he stayed laying in the breakers next to Phil.

“I’ll have the rest of my life to swim, I have a limited time to be with you properly,” he said after a moment, reaching over and wrapping his hand around Phil’s. Other than the tail and gills, Dan’s hands were the most noticeable difference between he and Phil. There was webbing stretching between his slightly stubby digits and his nails were more like claws, but the slightly purple skin complemented Phil’s pale complexion beautifully. It was a strange combination, but one that worked perfectly. Dan and Phil fit together, no matter how different they were.

“You’re so soppy,” Phil smirked, shuffling closer to Dan and using his free hand to cup the merman’s face. Looking deeply into his eyes, Phil leant forward and pressed their lips together.

It wasn’t the deepest kiss they’d shared by far, but it was sweet and the love that was coursing between them was tangible in the air. Dan’s hand rested on the back of Phil’s neck, holding him close as they said a more meaningful goodbye than words ever could.

After what felt like an eternity kissing, Phil shivering from the freezing water brought both boys back to earth. They slowly pulled apart, Dan’s hand on Phil’s neck keeping their faces mere centimeters away.

“I’m going to miss you so much,” Dan whispered, the sharp sea wind almost stealing his words away, “I love you Phil. No matter how far apart we are, I’ll always love you.”

“I love you too Dan,” Phil smiled sadly, staring deeply into Dan’s amazing eyes, “I promise I’ll come visit you as often as I can. Once I start working properly on my research we can decide on more of a routine, but until then just pay attention to your tracking device. If it’s vibrating that means I’m tracing the signal so just come up near the surface and I’ll find you. Okay?”

“Okay,” Dan nodded, tears welling up his eyes but just about being held back, “How long do you think it will be until I see you again?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Phil sighed, shoulders slumping a little, “It all depends on where your pod waters are, but I’ll try to get to you as soon as possible. We won’t be apart for long. You should probably get going soon, try and get home by sunrise. Your family are all going to be so happy to see you.”

“Yeah, they really are,” Dan’s smile was a little lighter as he thought about seeing his pod again after so so long, “Phil, I really can’t thank you enough for everything. Not just getting me out, but being my friend and being there for me all those years. Nothing I can do will ever be enough to thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me, I wanted to help you. Just make sure you don’t forget to come find me when I’m looking,” Phil chuckled fondly and kissed the side of Dan’s head, then suddenly pulled back with a surprised look on his face, “Oh, I almost forgot! I wanted to give you this, just something to remind you of your strange little human friend.”

Phil reached back into his pocket and pulled out his gift, letting it dangle from it’s chain as he held it out for Dan to see. I was a small circular locket he’d found at a market when he was about eight, the front embossed with a small but intricate design of a short haired mermaid swimming amongst a shoal of fish. Dan glanced at Phil with confusion furrowing his brows before carefully opening the locket and gasping, a fresh wave of tears threatening to spill over.

“Oh Phil-I love it,” Dan beamed, his glassy eyes looking over the picture encased in the small metal frame. It was one of the two of them when they were sixteen, the day Phil had gotten his first iPhone and shown Dan the front camera. Dan was amazed by it and - after making sure his hands were dried - Phil had let him mess around and fill his camera roll with pictures of a very confused merman. After taking it back, Phil had demonstrated how to take a selfie of them both. There had been a few mistaken first attempts, but they’d ended up with one of Phil’s all time favourite photos. Dan’s hair had begun to dry and curl up along his fringe, so his warm, caramel eyes were clearly on display. Both boys were smiling widely, two very different sets of teeth showing, and they both had an arm around the other. Phil had printed the photo and framed it to hang on the wall in Dan’s room, but he knew how much Dan liked it and was certain that it would be a well appreciated gift.

“The picture is all laminated so it should be fully waterproof and you can look at it whenever you want, though I can just print another if it does get water damaged. I got mum to get a new chain for the locket so it should be really strong and hopefully it won’t break,” Phil explained as he fastened the chain around Dan’s slender neck, then reached under his shirt to pull out an identical one strung around his own neck, “I’ve got one too. They came as a pair and were intended for lovers and I just liked the designs originally, but it’s almost as if they were made for us.”

Still smiling widely, Dan leant forward and kissed Phil again briefly yet deeply, “Thank you Phil, I love it and love you, even if you are a soppy git sometimes.”

“Shut up, I know you like it when I’m like that,” Phil sniggered, returning the kiss once more before sitting back on his heels, “Now go on, go and be free Dan. You deserve it.”

Dan nodded and quickly called a thank you to the other who were standing back on the beach, wishing he could tell how grateful he really was. Then, after exchanging one last kiss and ‘I love you’ with Phil, Dan pulled himself away from the land and back to the sea, where he belonged.

Phil watched with a smile on his face as Dan’s tail was fully submerged and Dan disappeared with one strong kick, the flash of the moonlight reflecting off his scales the last thing Phil saw.

Phil knelt in the water for a few more seconds, staring out to the vast, inky ocean for a sign of his best friend. He found none, letting out a soft sign as he got back to his feet and trudged back through the sand to the others. He was so glad that Dan was back in the wild, but he couldn’t help but feel a slight twang of sadness at the thought of possibly having to go weeks without seeing him.

He was slightly worried about Dan too, he’d been in captivity for so long and had missed many vital stages of development. What if it had been a bad idea to just throw him into the ocean and leave? What if he wasn’t able to get back to his pod? What if he was attacked during his journey? No one would be able to help him and he would be all alone in an unfamiliar and scary place.

“We’ve done a good thing Phil,” Cherry murmured, easily telling from Phil’s expression what thoughts were running through his head, “His instincts will be enough to get him home, then his family will be able to help him as much as he needs.”

Phil nodded and was about to say something else when he heard a loud splash from behind him. He spun on his heel just in time to see a lithe body and a sparkling tail launch out of the water, tucking and performing a neat somersault before vanishing back under the smooth dark surface.

Phil smiled as Dan’s euphoric hoot of celebration echoed through the tranquil night even after he’d disappeared, and he reached up to gently caress the locket around his neck. He’d done the right thing, he knew it now. Dan would be happy and healthier, he’d be with his family and his own people while still getting to keep contact with Phil.

Phil had just improved the life of the boy he loved by an indescribable amount, freed him from a miserable life of captivity and degradation. He’d been ripped away from his home, his family and his culture and shoved into a pathetic excuse of a habitat. But Phil had gotten him away from all of that, Phil had freed him.

****

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, I made a wikipedia page about the merpeople species in this story, which can be found [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Phandabbydosey/sandbox) if you want to see more about how the merpeople in this story work :D


End file.
